


Poképocalypse

by Kiyase



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Diamond & Pearl & Platinum | Pokemon Diamond Pearl Platinum Versions
Genre: Apocalypse, Gen, Multi, Pokemon Death, Pokemon Fanfiction, Pokemon Journey, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2020-06-14
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:46:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 23,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21633880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiyase/pseuds/Kiyase
Summary: Pokémon have changed. Gone are the days of people living peacefully together with pokémon. Now, pokémon attack humans, forcing humans to fight back against the pocket monsters they once loved. Humans now have to kill pokémon, before pokémon kill them.
Kudos: 1





	1. Adapting to the End of the World

Run. That was all she could do. Run from the fighting and ice attacks aimed to kill. The kitchen knife she had found in one of the abandoned houses was her only close range weapon, but it wouldn’t do much against the sneasels, snovers, and medichams chasing her. She also had a bow and arrow that she had bought prior to the world going to hell, but it was long range. Jordan took an arrow out of her quiver. She knocked it in the bow and prepared to shoot as she kept running.

She stumbled through the snow, and almost lost her footing. After so many outings, she was able to move with more ease through the snow, but she was still no expert.

The route was one she knew well. She had traversed it too many times to count.

_Acuity Lakefront, any more surprises for me?_

The girl was able to dodge more attacks aimed at her. She was able to get ahead of the pokémon, and decided that it was time to take a few shots at them.

_Ok Jordan, just breathe._

She pulled the arrow back, and released. The arrow hit the medicham, and it fell. Jordan smiled — the croagunk poison was doing its work. Jordan shot a few more arrows, and more pokémon fell. Once she had killed a few of them, the rest decided to retreat.

Jordan continued on the way to Snowpoint City. When she made it there, the gate opened for her. She quickly waved her thanks and kept walking through the city.

There were many people running around, trying to distribute blankets and food. There were houses that were in good shape, but not many people could stay there. A lot of the houses were destroyed when pokémon started attacking. Without the help of electric pokémon, energy was a thing of the past. The city didn’t have much to generate electricity, forcing them to go without. Snowpoint City was never one to use a lot of power — their power use always went up in the winter when it started to snow.

And it was close to that time again. The people taking shelter in Snowpoint would have to be very careful not to freeze to death during the months of winter. They were going to have to cut back on food even more. It would be a miracle if they survived this.

Jordan finally arrived at the gym. She entered, and traversed the path of ice she knew well. She reached the end, and looked around.

“Candice!” she shouted. “I’m back and have a report!”

Jordan kept looking around the city, but Candice was nowhere to be seen. Jordan crossed her arms, trying to think of where the former gym leader had gone. Jordan sighed, and sat down. She couldn’t stop thinking about when she went to the gym and received her own gym badge from there. Jordan put her head in her hands. “Why did things have to change?”

Jordan and her pokémon looked at an egg. She looked at her weavile and smiled.

“Isn’t this great Silvester? It looks like it might hatch soon!”

“Weav!”

Her empoleon cheered as well. The egg started to glow, and Jordan blocked her eyes from the bright light. When she opened them again, there was a small eevee in her arms.

“So cute!” Jordan pet the cubchoo’s head. “Guys, this is awesome! This is the newest member of our team!”

The eevee looked up at her and smiled. "Eeepauu!"

Jordan smiled and pet the pokémon's head. "All I have to do now is come up with a name for you…" She closed her eyes for a few moments in thought. "Olwen."

The eevee cheered. She liked the name. Jordan nodded, and stood up with Olwen in her arms. The trainer looked at her two pokémon. "How about we go challenge that gym now?"

Silvester looked at her. "Jordan."

The trainer stepped back in shock. Why was her weavile able to talk?

"Jordan!" This time was more urgent, like someone was trying to get her attention.

"Jordan!"

Jordan knocked an arrow in her bow, then blinked a few times. Candice was standing in front of her, her hand on Jordan's shoulder.

"You okay? You were kind of spaced out."

Jordan nodded and quickly stood up. "I was looking for you. The pokémon in this area are starting to make advances towards the city, but most of them are doing their own thing. I think they'll move away from the city once winter comes."

Candice nodded grimly, and couldn't keep the disappointment off her face. Jordan took off her round glasses and rubbed her eyes.

"Listen, I know pokémon used to be our friends. None of us thought this would happen. But we can't focus on that now."

Candice sighed and nodded. "I know, I know."

"Candice, it's been three years. _Three._ It still hurts, I get it." Jordan leaned up against the ice covered wall. "But we need to get over it. I don't think pokémon are ever going to go back to the way they were."

Jordan reached into the pocket of her burgundy parka, and pulled out an ultra ball — Silvester's pokéball. She spun it around in her hand, and sighed. Pokémon had attacked humans. Something had made them go berserk, and now pokémon wouldn't hesitate to kill humans. Their peaceful life with pokémon was gone, and no one knew if they were going to get it back.

Jordan was brought out of her thoughts when she heard Candice's laughter.

"You know, Jordan, I haven't seen those eyes in a while."

"Eyes?"

"Yeah. You haven't had that expression on your face in a while. It made me think of when you first came here. You were seventeen right?"

"Mmhm. I had been out there for a year on my own." Jordan sighed and looked down at her bow. "It's already been two years? I guess I'm lucky I was thinking of getting one of these for fun. It's really helped."

Candice leaned on the wall next to Jordan. "You know," she said, "you're pretty different from that creed girl we found sleeping in the snow."

"I was so tired that day. I was ready to give up too. God, it was like losing a pokémon all over again." Jordan sighed. She had to get going; she couldn't stall any longer. Jordan put the ultra ball in her jacket, and straightened. "I'm going to go see what's up. Winter's coming soon, and it's always the worst here. We need to stock up on supplies."

Candice nodded, and Jordan left the gym. She walked outside, and felt a late autumn breeze. Winter was close. There would only be a month until the first snowfall. Snowpoint city always lost some people in the winter months, and they were all trying to find a way to prevent that from happening this year. They were already low on supplies, and if things continued like this, they wouldn't have enough food to make it through the first month — let alone three. It didn't help that they were cut off from the rest of Sinnoh because of the blizzards that affected the routes leading to the city.

_We still need more blankets. We'll freeze without layers._

Jordan sighed. If only there was a way to get more food. Well, she _did_ have an idea, but she didn't know if the others would be okay with it. She had killed pokémon and eaten them to survive when she was on her own, but not many other ex-trainers did that. Trainers on routes were killed almost instantly, and the others were in cities and were able to get somewhere safe. Jordan was part of the former; however, she was able to escape her pokémon. Either that, or her pokémon still had some sort of sense in them to not kill her before they went completely berserk. Jordan was one of the lucky ones.

Too many people still held on to the hope that pokémon might go back to normal.

Jordan walked around the city, and saw people walking around and doing their own thing to prepare.

"Is Candice coming out here soon? You were just talking to her, right?"

Jordan looked down. A small boy was looking up at her with expectant eyes. She nodded.

"Candice should be out soon. In the meantime, why don't we get you back to your family, Jake?"

"My daad isn't here, but Mom's doing some recon just like you were!"

Jordan pinched the bridge of her nose. If she would have known more people were going to do reconnaissance, she would have gone to help them. Wasn't what she did enough? Why did others have to do the same? Not everyone was prepared to handle a wild pokémon attack.

_It's likely Jake's mom is going to die out there. Poor kid._

Jordan led Jake to a big building with a faded orange roof. The old Pokémon Center had been turned into housing for the younger trainers and children that didn't' have anyone in the city. Nurse Joy was always good with children, so she was put in charge of watching over the younger ones. Jordan was able to stay there once in a while, but she mostly resided in the gym, or stayed in one of the older homes. She was used to sleeping outdoors, just like all the other trainers.

Jordan walked up to the Pokémon Center and looked around. She held Jake's hand as she walked inside. "Nurse Joy! I found Jake wandering around outside!"

The pink haired nurse stood up and walked away from a group of children. She was no longer wearing her uniform — now she had a pink button up shirt over a white tee shirt and jeans. She walked over to Jordan and smiled.

"Thank you Jordan. I was worried about him, but as you can see," she looked around at all the children, "I have my hands a bit full at the moment."

Jordan nodded. "No worries Nurse Joy." Jordan stepped forward and whispered into Nurse Joy's ear. "Apparently his mom's out doing some recon. make sure to keep him occupied as best you can."

Nurse Joy's eyes widened, and she nodded as Jordan stepped back. Jordan turned around and waved. "I'll try to stop by later if I find out where the extra blankets are."

"It's okay if you don't find them Jordan. We have plenty here. You should remember to take some for yourself."

Jordan frowned and looked back at Nurse Joy. She sighed, turned back around, and left the center.

When she was outside, she looked in the direction of the gym. She was going to have a few words with Candice. She shouldn't have let people with little experience go out and try to do some recon.

She walked around the city and saw some people farming. They had a few nonperishable food items that would help them get through the winter, but they still were trying to grow food — their supply would be very low soon. It was lucky for them that there was some farmable land closer to the edge of the city.

Jordan looked over and sighed. She was never good at farming. She would most likely do more harm than good if she walked over there. Jordan continued to make her way to the gym when she heard the gates opening and people screaming and shouting. A group fo people were running in with pokémon attacks firing behind them.

Jordan knocked an arrow in her bow and sprinted toward the gates. As she passed people, she yelled at them to get inside.

The pokémon attacks were getting closer to Snowpoint. Jordan's eyes widened. She needed to hurry. she made her way to the gate, and quickly climbed up the watch post. She started shooting arrows, and was able to take down some pokémon. The others decided to retreat into the route once more.

Jordan let out a sigh of relief, and once she got down, she went outside the gate to pick up her arrows. Since the pokémon had already retreated, it wasn't that dangerous to go out for a few minutes. Jordan pulled her arrows out of the dead pokémon. She stood up, and turned to go back through the gate.

Jordan took a few steps forward, then hesitated. They were running low on food, so now was the perfect time to suggest eating pokémon. Jordan turned back toward a sneasel corpse, and pick it up. She walked back through the gates, ignoring the stares she got form all the others.


	2. A Crazy Solution

Jordan dragged the sneasel corpse to the house where she stayed. She decided to drop it off, then left to go find Candice. She was going to try breaking it to the gym leader that once they ran out of food, they were going to have to try eating pokémon.

Jordan decided that Candice could only be in one of three places — the Pokémon Center, the gym, or the Snowpoint Trainer's School. She decided to go to the Trainer's School first.

Jordan walked through the city, and was passing by the Pokémon Center when another ex-trainer bumped into her.

"Ah! Sorry! Are you okay?"

Jordan looked up to see a boy her age with black hair and sky blue eyes. He was wearing a dark grey shirt, black pants, and combat boots. He reached down and pulled her up.

"Axel, what the hell?"

Axel rubbed the back of his neck, and started to pick up the blankets around him. Jordan bent down and started to pick them up as well. Axel looked at Jordan. "Thanks for the help. I heard you were going to look for these but you never showed up at the Pokémon Center."

"I got distracted. Hey, follow me." Jordan started walking, and Axel decided to follow her. She led him to the house she was staying in. Axel gasped when she opened the door.

"Is that what I think it is? Jordan, why the hell do you have that in here?"

"Hear me out." Jordan put her hands up to calm Axel. "Our food supply is going to run out soon. If we want less people to die in the winter, we need to eat some other way. I know you and the other ex-trainers around here aren't happy with the idea, but we're going to have to eat pokémon."

"Jordan, this is zubat shit crazy! How do you expect us to eat something like this?"

"I said to hear me out. I've done it before when I was out there on my own. It takes a little getting used to, but it's the only chance we've got. I'll prepare it, just try it with me." Jordan smirked. "I can't be the only one suggesting the crazy idea to eat pokémon."

Axel looked to the side, then shook his head. He let out a frustrated sigh, the nodded. "I'll try it if it's to keep people around here from dying."

Jordan nodded and smirked. "I knew you were a good kid!"

"We're the same age, jackass!"

Jordan crossed her arms. "It might be a little bland, but it's what we would have to deal with anyway."

Axel held a hand up to stop her. "Just cook the damn thing. Don't tell me all the details."

Jordan nodded again, and turned to the pokémon corpse. Axel left the house, and continued to walk around and hand out blankets at the Pokémon Center.

Jordan took out her kitchen knife to start to skin the pokémon, then paused. She did want to try and break the news to Candice, but considering the former gym leader was still hung up about pokémon becoming savage, it probably wasn't the best idea to tell her. Jordan decided she could let Candice know about eating pokémon once Axel agreed that it was acceptable.

_If not, I'll just break it to her myself._

Jordan got up and decided to look through the house for a bigger knife to skin the sneasel. She would prefer to have a dagger of some sort, but she never bothered to get one.

Jordan looked through the drawers in the kitchen, and was able to find something that looked like a hunting knife and a hunting dagger. Her eyebrows furrowed as she looked at her two finds.

 _Now why didn't I see these before?_ Jordan placed her kitchen knife on the counter, instead equipping herself with the hunting knife and dagger. She kept searching, and was able to find a sheath for the dagger. She attached the dagger to the belt of her black high waisted jeans. Jordan then gripped the hunting knife and walked back to the room with the sneasel.

Jordan quickly got to work skinning the sneasel. She set the claws apart, since they could be formed into some sort of weapon for her.

Jordan stepped back and cleaned her hands with a towel. She put the parts of the sneasel the wasn't going to use in a bag and placed it in the corner of the kitchen. She set the claws on top of the table in the kitchen, then turned to the counter to separate the meat. Jordan looked around to find a good place to set up a fire. She couldn't use the stove or oven for obvious reasons, so her only option was to find a place where she could light a fire and cook the meat.

Jordan stepped back and crossed her arms. No one normally snooped around her house — that was the reason she decided to move in — and there was a large enough area to set up a small fire. Jordan nodded and stepped out of the house to look for a suitable spot.

She walked out to an area that could barely be called a backyard, and nodded. This looked like a suitable spot. All she had to do now was get some firewood. She could also get some for the rest of the Snowpoint residents. It never hurt to have extra.

Jordan wrapped the sneasel meat and buried it in the snow just outside her house. The cold would keep it from going bad while she was getting firewood.

The ex-trainer made sure she had the dagger with her, then grabbed her bow and quiver and walked out the door.

She didn't have an axe, so she would have to walk around to see one lying around, or directly ask someone to go out with her and get some for her. It wasn't like Jordan actually knew which trees in the area were best for it anyway.

Jordan stopped walking around. Maybe Axel or Nurse Joy knew? Jordan could always stop by the center to see how things were going and casually throw in something about an axe. That would go well, right?

Jordan quickly made her way to the Pokémon Center, searing for the nurse. She saw the faded orange roof and walked inside.

Axel was inside handing out some blankets, and Nurse Joy was helping him.

 _Good. Both of them are here._ Jordan decided to approach Axel first.

"How's the cooking going?"

"I need firewood."

"You mean you don't have any back at your place?"

"Yes. I have firewood at my place, which is _exactly_ why I'm telling you I need some."

Axel straightened and crossed his arms. "You know, Jordan, I could do without the sarcasm."

"I wouldn't do it if you didn't make it so easy."

"Okay, fine." Axel sighed. "Do you want me to help you or something?"

"I need an axe."

"Aren't there people here that do that?"

"Yeah, but," Jordan rubbed the back of her neck, "what do you think they would say if I told them I want the firewood to —" she leaned in to whisper in Axel's ear —"cook a pokémon?"

Axel sighed. "You're lucky I just happen to be next door to one of them. I'll go take it later. This had better be worth it."

Jordan moved to pat Axel on the shoulder, but her blocked her hand. "There's one condition."

"Wha—"

"I'm going to help you."

"No."

"I'm not taking 'no' for an answer. You can't carry it all by yourself. And what are you going to do if you get caught by pokémon and killed?" Axel leaned in. "You're probably the only one here that knows how to cook meat like that. The only crazy enough to do it too."

Jordan sighed. Axel had a point. She had no chance of shooting her bow and arrow if she was carrying wood. Jordan put her hands in her pockets and slightly nodded. "Find. You'd just follow me out anyway."

Axel smirked in victory and handed out another blanket. "So when are we headed out?"

"In a few minutes. Go get ready and meet me at the back gate."

"A few minutes, are you crazy? How do you think I'm going to get that axe in a _few minutes?"_

"Just don't take long." Jordan turned around and walked out of the Pokémon Center.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy belated Christmas! I had meant to post this on Christmas Day, but my laptop died and I didn't have a chance to charge it because someone else was hogging it >:(  
> Anyway, it should have come earlier but I'm updating this chapter and then another one a few minutes later as my way of saying Merry Christmas! I'm also going to get more of an update schedule worked out so it isn't as sporadic. (I know this is only the second chapter, but it's been too long.)  
> I hope you guys liked this chapter, and stay tuned for the next to come!


	3. So That's a No on the Firewood?

An hour later, Axel met Jordan at the gate. Jordan glared at the former.

"I told you a few minutes, not a damn hour."

Axel produced the axe. "You say that like it's easy to steal an axe from someone."

"I would've been in and out in a few minutes."

"Well, I'm not you. Can we just get this firewood?"

Jordan huffed and turned around. She signaled for the gate to be opened, and walked out with Axel trailing behind her.

"It's a good thing you're known around here for recon," said Axel, "that way, we don't have to explain ourselves to the guys on gate duty."

"Everyone knows I can handle myself. I won't die that easily."

"That means you won't let me die easily either!" Axel chuckled after receiving a glare from Jordan. "I'm only joking. I can hold my own too."

"I know." Jordan rolled her eyes. "That's the only reason I let you come with me."

Axel frowned and kept walking. He let his hand rest on the hilt of his sword and frowned. He would always do his best to survive.

The duo kept walking until they found an area on the route that had a lot of trees. Jordan stepped forward and looked around.

"This should be good. We can look for fallen branches and then start chopping."

Axel nodded, and they started to walk around, picking up fallen branches along the way. Jordan grabbed some extra rope from her pocket and tied it around ten branches that she had found, securing them so they wouldn't come apart.

"I think we've picked up everything off the ground."

Jordan looked at Axel and nodded. "Then let's find an acceptable tree around her to chop down."

"We should bring as much as we can for the others too." Axel smiled, causing Jordan to roll her eyes.

"I'm not getting killed out here just for everyone else. The point of coming out here was to find firewood so I can cook up that pokémon."

"Don't be stingy," said Axel. "Besides, you're the one who said she can handle herself out there."

Jordan opened her mouth, but then closed it again, repacking her neutral expression with a scowl. Axel laughed again.

"Don't give me that look."

"Don't use my words against me."

"Okay, fine." Axel held up his hands in surrender with a smirk. "Let's just get out of here before the pokémon notice us."

Jordan nodded, and found a tree that was a little tall and had a trunk that was a little on the thin side. "This one should work. I don't think it'll be too heavy for the two of us to take back."

Axel nodded. "You keep watch, and I'll chop it down. You're more experienced in fighting pokémon."

"I was hoping you'd say that." Jordan placed the bundle of branches on the ground next to her and readied her bow. She took an arrow out of her quiver and knocked it in the bow. There must have been some pokémon around that already heard them talking. Axel chopping down the tree would only draw more attention. After all, pokémon didn't chop down trees.

Jordan focused on her surroundings, paying attention to any extra noises aside from the _thump_ of the axe against the base of the tree.

Jordan noticed movement in her peripheral vision, immediately turning to the left. She scanned the area until she saw a small white figure hiding behind a tree. She squinted so she could focus on it better. It wasn't until the unidentified object blinked that she realized what it was.

"…Shit." Jordan noticed more eyes watching her and Axel. None of them had moved yet, but she knew they were waiting for the right time.

She glanced behind at Axel and saw that he was a little more than halfway through the trunk of the tree. Jordan looked forward at the pokémon again; some of them were starting to move forward. "Axel."

"Yeah?"

"I would hurry up with the chopping if I were you."

"What?" Axel paused and looked up. "What do yo —"

"— Don't stop!"

Axel nodded and started chopping again. "Jordan, what's going on?"

"…Keep your voice down. There are a group of snover watching us."

"Are you serious?"

Jordan's grip on her bow tightened. "Do you really think I would joke about this kind of thing?"

"No… it's just… I can't believe it."

"What do you mean you can't believe it? We're out in the wild right now. Don't be a dumbass!"

"I… I know. My bad."

Jordan frowned. Snover were very curious pokémon, so they were less likely to attack humans, but they would still do so after watching people long enough. And wherever there were snover, there was bound to be…

"ABOMASNOW!"

"Shit! Axel, get back over here! We'll have to come back to it later!"

"But I'm almost done!"

Jordan ran over to him and grabbed his arm. "We won't survive against an _abomasnow._ There are only two of us. A bigger group? Maybe. Just us two? Might as well sign off on out deaths right now. Move it! Grab what we have and go!" Jordan picked up the bundle of branches she had on put the arrow back in her quiver. She gripped her bow and started running, only after checking that Axel was doing the same.

The two ex-trainers started running through the snow on their way back to Snowpoint. The snover started slowly following them, and the abomasnow was not that far behind.

"Catch!" Jordan tossed her bundle of branches to Axel — the latter successfully catching it and adding it to his own pile. She then took out an arrow and knocked it in her bow. She wouldn't shoot yet, but it was important to be ready.

"Jordan! I wouldn't shoot at that thing right now!"

"I'm not! I'm getting ready!"

"Just make sure you don't shoot at it unless absolutely necessary!"

"I know that! Now shut up and run!"

The two of them kept running and avoiding the ice type attacks that started coming their way. Jordan saw an Icy Wind start to freeze Axel's leg.

"Damn that's cold!"

"We're almost there," shouted Jordan. "Keep running! Once we're closer we can probably kill some of them and cause the others to retreat!"

The duo kept running and soon reached the gate. They started shouting for them to open it and let them in.

"Hey! Come on, let us in!" Axel shouted at the people on gate duty.

"Axel's injured," yelled Jordan. "You know who we are, so let us in you assholes! We went for recon and firewood!"

"At least kill some of them so that none of the pokémon get in here first!"

Jordan narrowed her eyes. They had to be kidding, right? Kill some of the pokémon without being able to get inside? She shook her head. What they were asking made sense. It was important to secure the safety of those inside the gate, but that still didn't mean that they could lock out two of their own!

She sighed and lifted her bow. It looked like they had no choice other than killing some of the pokémon in hopes that they would retreat.

"Get your sword out!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm on it." Axel took out his longsword with a satisfying _shiing!_ and held it out in front of him. Although not as effective, Axel could still fight holding his sword with one hand. He needed to keep the firewood safe, or their trip would have all been for nothing.

Jordan shot a few arrows at the closest snover, jumping out of the way to avoid a few Icy Winds and Razor Leaves. Many still hit her, freezing her shoulders and cutting up her arms and midsection. Axel cut apart the snover that jumped out at him, also being hit by some of the Razor Leaves that were sent his way. He wasn't able to avoid an Icy Wind aimed at his back, and ice quickly formed.

The two of them killed two more snover each, and then the rest decided to retreat. Once the abomasnow saw that its group of snover were running away, it decided to follow after them. These humans were strong, and it knew that there were more on the other side of the tall gate standing between pokémon and human.

Once the pokémon left, Jordan let out a sigh of relief. She stumbled back as she allowed for the gates to open. She helped Axel stand, since he was the one that had damage on his legs form the pokémon attacks. She slung his right arm around her neck, and wrapped her left arm around his torso. They both limped through the gates, and once the door closed behind them, Axel dropped the firewood he was holding. Jordan picked it up and helped Axel to the Pokémon Center. Nurse Joy would know how to fix their injuries there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay! As promised, here is a second chapter for the day! Most of what I needed to say was in the previous chapter so the note will end here.  
> Since I probably won't update until 2020, Happy New Year! I hope you enjoyed the chapter!


	4. Cat's Out of the Bag

"What were you two thinking?"

Nurse Joy was wrapping bandages around Jordan's midsection, after disinfecting them of course.

Jordan looked away in shame. She had never let herself get injured like this on a quick run to gather materials. She was disappointed in herself. They hadn't even gotten as much firewood as she wanted!

"We were just trying to get some—ah! Ow! HOT!"

Nurse Joy glared at Axel. "It doesn't matter what you two were _trying_ to get—you were both stupid enough to do it on your own and not tell any of us what you were trying to do."

Axel joined Jordan in looking away. There was no explanation for it. They got unlucky out there and didn't let let anyone know why they were going out there in the first place.

"You two are just lucky that you came across snover and not something more aggressive. Now, Jordan—" Nurse Joy placed her hands on the girl's shoulders—"lay down for me."

Jordan slowly leaned back, wincing from the pain in her midsection. There was a bin of warm water—which Nurse Joy heated up using some firewood from the back of the Pokémon Center. As Jordan slowly dipped her left arm and shoulder into the water, she winced and cringed—those cuts were really stinging.

"Leave most of your arm out of the water," instructed the nurse, "and dip the frozen area into it. That way, we can get your body temperature back to normal. Once that one's done, we'll do the same with your right arm."

Jordan cringed again and nodded.

"Hey Nurse Joy!" Axel waved and smirked. "I think my leg's staring to feel better now! I'll go ahead and leave if that's oka—"

Axel's words stopped cold as Nurse Joy pointed a glare towards him. The pink haired nurse normally didn't glare at people, but when she did, it would make the biggest and baddest trainer cower in fear.

"You, mister 'I have a sword so nothing bad can happen to me,' will stay here until your leg is completely healed." Nurse Joy smiled. "We don't want to have to amputate it, right?"

Axel gulped.

"Good." Nurse Joy sighed. "Both of you stay there; you'll need to soak for a while."

Nurse Joy left the room, and Axel looked at Jordan. "So… how are you going to cook that sneasel now? Your arms are pretty useless, aren't they?"

"They aren't useless," growled Jordan. "Once they're bandage, I can cook."

"You just won't be able to do things like sue your bow and arrow for a while."

"Don't bring that up."

"I won't be able to walk around comfortably for a while either." Axel stared up at the ceiling. "So what will us two useless bums do?"

"Axel, if you say one more thing like that, you'd better pray to whatever god you believe in that I don't—"

"—I know. Just trying to make some casual conversation while our frostbitten limbs soak in warm water so we don't lose use of them forever."

"If I could move right now, I would soak you."

"Which is exactly why I'm saying all of this." Axel smirked. "You have to listen, and you can't do anything about it."

"…"

After a few moments of silence, Axel decided to speak up again. "Do you still think this is worth it? Hunting and cooking pokémon, I mean."

"It has to be. We'll all die if this doesn't work out."

Many hours and warm water baths later, Jordan and Axel were bandaged up and allowed to leave the room. Axel still had to limp everywhere, and Jordan had a tough time moving in general. The cuts on her midsection and arms didn't do much to help. Nurse Joy had instructed them to stay inside the Pokémon Center until they felt better, but Jordan was intent on cooking pokémon meat as soon as possible.

"You should really rest," said Axel, "we can wait until we're healed just a little more before doing this."

"I want to be able to do this as soon as I can."

"But that isn't worth making things worse and not being able to do anything here at all. Just stay in the warmth until we're a little better. We won't run out of food in that time."

Jordan huffed and looked away. "Then what are we supposed to do in the meantime?"

"I think I can answer that."

Both Jordan and Axel looked up to see who the new voice belonged to. Jordan's eyes widened.

"Candice? What are you doing here?"

The former gym leader smiled. "A little starly told me you had an interesting idea." Candice paused for a few moments. "Care to let me know what it is?"

Jordan and Axel looked at each other. Axel smiled and made Jordan turn around with him.

"Let's talk about this somewhere else, hm? Where others can't _eavesdrop_." Axel looked at the group of kids that had surrounded them. The children started giggling, then ran away. Axel smirked, then he and Jordan led Candice to one of the room in the back of the Pokémon Center.

Once they were inside, Axel closed the door. Jordan looked around to make sure no one was listening in. When she was sure all three of them were alone, she leaned against the door and nodded to Candice. Candice cleared her throat, then looked at each of the ex-trainers.

"So what is this idea you had?"

Jordan looked at Axel, and the latter shrugged. "It's your idea, don't look at me."

Jordan glared at him, then looked back at Candice. "Fine then. But first," she narrowed her gaze at Candice, "how did you know I had an idea. And if you know what it is, what's even the point of telling you?"

Candice raised her arms in surrender. "I don't know what your idea is, but I did overhear you two talking about something. It has something to do with food, right?"

Jordan nodded. This was why Candice was in charge of the Trainer's School. She was smart, and not many things got past her. She was great at teaching others and was able to show younger kids the tough parts of being a trainer. It's also a reason why she was chosen to be a gym leader so quickly. She could give trainers hints about what they did wrong whenever they lost to her.

"Well, out food supply is running low, so I thought of something we could do. I used to do it when I was out in the wild." Candice nodded, signaling Jordan to go on. "My plan was to try this out first on Axel before bringing it to you, but it's to eat pokémon."

Candice's eyes widened as she stared at Jordan in shock. "You… you can't be serious. Eat pokémon?"

"I know it takes a bit of getting used to, but winter's coming soon. We won't be able to grow anything for at _least_ three months when we have snow—well, more snow than usual. The only thing around here that's a source of food is the pokémon around here."

Candice crossed her arms. "You say that like it's a simple thing: ill and then eat pokémon. Two simple steps. It isn't like they constantly try to kill us when we go outside or anything."

"I know it will be… difficult, but it's something we have to do if we want less people to die this winter. You know we're separated from the rest of the region. There are lots of routes blocking our way, not to mention the damn _mountain that cuts the entire region in half!_ If you want to risk sending people out to contact other towns—if there are even any left—be my guest. Their blood won't be on my hands."

Axel placed a hand on Jordan's shoulder. The girl had stepped close to the former gym leader, and her hands had formed fists. Jordan took a breath, and stepped back.

"Man." Axel broke the silence. "The tension in this room can be cut with a _knife_."

Both girls glared at him, promptly shutting him up. Candice sighed, then looked at Jordan. "I'm not saying that it can't work," said Candice. "I'm just saying that people might not want to do it at first."

"I didn't either," said Jordan, "but if people get hungry enough, they'll do anything to survive."

Candice didn't respond. Instead, she stood up and walked towards the door She looked back at the two ex-trainers. "You guys were hurt just trying to go out and get some firewood. Make sure this is really worth it, then bring me a piece when you're done. I'll decide how it's suggested to the people here." She opened the door, then stepped out. "Good luck."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter came out a little later than I wanted it to, but I hope you liked it nonetheless! I'm going to do my best to post biweekly, but I haven't decided on a specific day. So, I'll see you in two weeks! Stay tuned ;)


	5. Success!

After Candice left the room, Jordan and Axel looked at each other.

”Loved the vote of confidence,” muttered Jordan. Axel smirked.

”Don’t be like that. She’s just watching out for us.”

”How the hell have you stayed so optimistic?”

Axel shrugged and stood up with minor difficulty. Jordan moved to help him, but he put a hand up to stole her. Jordan rolled her eyes and stepped back.

Once Axel was standing, he crossed his arms. “We should still probably stay inside for a little bit. Nurse Joy’ll probably want to check up on us again.”

”Hang around here and do what?”

”Well,” Axel opened the door, “there’s a group of kids here that always figure out what to do.”

”I don’t like sitting around,” huffed Jordan.

”Yeah, yeah. You’re the big, bad, ex-trainer that survived out in the wild for an entire year by herself. Come on.”

Jordan was at a loss for words. She was _not_ a “big, bad, ex-trainer.” She simply grew used to doing things on her own. Things were rough out there. Only the strong survived.

Jordan reluctantly followed Axel out to the lobby of the Pokémon Center, where a group of kids was waiting. A boy with brown hair and olive green eyes saw her and ran up to her.

”Jordan! Thanks for helping my mom!”

Sweat ran down the side of Jordan’s face. “Uh, no problem, Jake. Don’t, ah, don’t mention it.”

Jordan saw Axel stifling a laugh in her peripheral vision. She turned her head and glared at him, only making him laugh even harder.

”Your face is so red! Ahahaha! Is the big bad Jordan embarrassed?”

”I’m not embarrassed!”

”Sure,” Jordan hated how he dragged out that word, “it has nothing to do with someone showing their thanks to you at all.”

”Asshole, if I wasn’t like this, you’d be a dead man!”

”I guess I’ll count my lucky stars.” Axel paused for a few moments, then grinned. “So if you can’t do anything with your bow—or attack me in any way, really—then that means I can basically say whatever I want, right?”

Jordan glared at him. This time successfully shutting the male up. Jordan sighed and turned around. She walked behind Nurse Joy’s desk and picked up the small bundle of firewood. She directed another glare towards Axel, then walked out of the Pokémon Center.

Jordan sighed as she closed the door to her house. She carried the bundle of wood to the kitchen, then set it on the counter. She walked outside, and found the area of fresh snow where she had buried the sneasel meat.

As she was digging through the snow, he arms started to ache. The cuts were stinging, and the cold didn’t do much to help her aching shoulders. They had just thawed out, but Jordan didn’t want to sit still. She felt like it was her duty to find a way for the others to have food during the winter months. After all, they took her in when they found her out in the wild.

Jordan shook her head. Part of her couldn’t believe that she was doing this. She normally wouldn’t, but since it concerned her survival as well…

”I really don’t have a choice in this,” she muttered, “do I?” Jordan finished digging up the pokémon meat, and started carrying it inside.

Once she was inside, she set the meat on the counter. She had to sort out what she was going to cook.

Jordan set apart the meat, then walked outside the build the base of the fire. With a little trouble, she was able to start the fire. It was so much easier with pokémon around. Not that she normally used fire type pokémon anyway. Ice types used to be her favorite. Now she just wasn’t sure if she _could_ have a favorite anymore.

Jordan put the meat on skewers, and stabbed them into the snow so they could cook against the fire. She sat and watched the crackling flames.

She diligently watched the meat while it was cooking. She had to make sure she wouldn’t burn the meat. Jordan turned the skewers after ten minutes, sitting close to the flames while the other side finished cooking. Maybe the warmth of the flames could help with her recently defrosted shoulders? Jordan was used to being in the cold a lot, but it still always felt nice to be close to something warm.

Ten minutes passed, cueing Jordan to move the skewers away from the flames. They were the perfect distance away so they wouldn’t burn, but close enough so they would stay warm.

Jordan decided to grab one so she could taste test. She bit into the meat and smiled. It was bland, but it was better than having berries and the other crap they had saved in the food storage. Jordan finished eating and stood up. She was going to get Axel and Candice so they could try it.

She ran through the snow covered city, trying to find the former gym leader and ex-trainer. The fire would be fine while she was gone, and no one passed by her house anyway; there wasn’t a risk of anyone finding out. She kept looking through the camp they had, eventually finding herself by the gym. She saw Candice starting to walk into the building.

”Candice!”

She turned around and stared at Jordan with wide eyes. “Jordan? You’re supposed to be inside the Pokémon Center! What are you doing here?”

”I did it.”

”You did…” a look of realization came across Candice’s face. “Oh. Right. You have the food ready?”

Jordan nodded. “I ended up coming here first, but we’re going to get Axel on the way back.”

”Jordan, you need to rest. You and Axel were just attacked by pokémon!”

”You know I can’t sit still.”

”That doesn’t mean you can sit out in the snow for who knows how long trying to prove an idea! Stop being so stubborn and get some rest!”

”I wasn’t sitting in the snow.”

”Jordan. I can see it on your coat.”

Jordan rolled her eyes. “Fine. Whatever. The food will go bad if we do that. Just come with me so you can try it.”

Candice hesitated. She let out a sigh. “Fine. But only on one condition.”

Jordan raised an eyebrow, not liking the sound of this.

”You sit down and _rest_. You can’t push yourself like this, or you’re only going to make yourself worse.”

Jordan huffed in defeat. “If it’s the only way to make you come with me, then fine.”

Candice smiled in victory, and followed Jordan towards the Pokémon Center.

The doors opened, and the two girls immediately saw Nurse Joy stomping towards them. Jordan paled and gulped. She didn’t like getting on the nurse’s bad side, yet she seemed to be pretty good at it recently. Nurse Joy reached Jordan, then started poking her in the shoulder, causing the former to wince each time.

”I said that you could leave the room, not the center itself. What we’re you thinking? You could make the entire frost-bitten area even worse! Did those pokémon freeze your brain too?”

Jordan looked away, unable to meet Nurse Joy’s gaze. Jordan put her hand in her pocket, and started fiddling with the ultra ball in it. She took a breath, and looked up at Joy. “I know I shouldn’t have done it, but I have to do something important with Candice and Axel.”

Candice placed a hand on Jordan’s shoulder, making the ex-trainer wince. “Don’t worry Nurse Joy,” said a smiling Candice, “I made Jordan promise me that she would stay in here and rest once our business is done. She won’t be leaving the Pokémon Center again until she’s healed.”

Jordan directed her glare at the ground, and walked past the nurse. Jordan heard people snickering to the left, so she looked up. She saw Axel now sporting a pair of crutches, laughing with the group of kids that always stayed in the center.

Jordan calmed herself, then walked over to the group. She wasn’t going to deal with Axel’s tauros-shit. They needed to deal strictly with business. Jordan had let herself become too complacent with how things worked around here. Survival was still the most important aspect of their lives. Jordan had a way to fix the food problem, which was nothing to joke about.

She grabbed Axel’s arm and pulled him close so she could whisper in his ear.

”Woah! Jordan, what are you—“

”Food’s ready. Let’s go.”

Jordan stepped back, and turned around. She started walking towards the entrance, and Axel frowned. Jordan had gotten serious all of a sudden.

_And right when I thought I was getting her to chill out…_

Axel quickly replaced his frown with a smile and walked towards the entrance as well. When he approached the group of three, Nurse Joy huffed and turned around. She turned back to look at both him and Jordan.

”You two will stay here after you finish whatever business you have to attend to. You won’t leave unless I tell you otherwise.”

Both Axel and Jordan nodded, gaining laughs from their little audience of kids. Nurse Joy was really scary when she wanted to be. Axel shook his head; this couldn’t be good for her health.

Jordan led the two back to her house, where the food was waiting. They made their way to the back where the fire was still going. There was smoke in the air. The only reason no one had gone to check it out was because they all had jobs to do around the town. That, and fires were a normal thing around Snowpoint. How else were the people supposed to stay warm?

Jordan picked up two skewers of meat, and handed one to Candice and Axel. Candice looked very hesitant, while Axel’s mouth was watering. Most trainers had refused to eat pokémon meat in restaurants, but some of them did.

”Wow! This is pretty good,” exclaimed Axel. “I only had something like this one time, but it isn’t bad.”

Meanwhile, Candice looked horrified. “It actually…”

Jordan looked at the former gym leader with anticipation.

”…I can’t believe I’m saying this, but it actually isn’t terrible.”

Jordan’s shoulder relaxed, and she nodded. “So is this a thing we’re going to bring up to the people around here?”

Candice sighed. “It will take some time to find the right way to bring it up to everyone, but yes. This is a good way to solve the food problem.”

Jordan and Axel nodded. Candice held a hand up. “Before you get excited, we still have to figure something out.”

”Which is?”

”We still have to designate hunters. You two will still be out of commission until you are fully healed. We still have enough food for a while, yet we need to select people that have the most experience fighting pokémon.”

”Okay, so obviously I’m on that team.”

”Yes, Jordan.” Candice rolled her eyes. “You and Axel are members of it no question. Jordan, you go on recon the most, and Axel, you’re pretty skilled with that sword of yours. What I’m saying, is that we need more than two of you, just in case you get injured again, or there’s a problem out there.”

Jordan rolled her eyes. She could do it on her own. She didn’t need any help.

Axel whacked Jordan upside the head. She glared at him, but he conveniently avoided her gaze. “You know you can’t do it on your own.”

”I do recon on my own.”

”Recon is different than hunting.”

Jordan looked away. “It could be the same.”

”It’s not.” Candice crossed her arms. “We need a group a group of designated hunters, with smaller groups going out when our food supply is low.”

Jordan huffed and grabbed another piece of meat from the ground. She bit into it and turned to go back inside, but Candice grabbed the neck of her parka.

”Remember our deal?”

Jordan looked back and sheepishly took another bite of her food. “I was hoping you forgot?”

Candice smiled and shook her head. “Nope!” She kicked snow over the fire, putting it out. “Come on.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, yes it’s technically been three weeks, and yes I’m late on the update. I wanted to make this one a little longer than usual, and I ended up getting kind of stuck. I know that’s not an excuse, but I thought you guys should know why I’m late :) I promise the next one will be on time.
> 
> I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter!


	6. Puzzles

A week had passed, and Jordan was still not used to lounging around and not doing anything. Candice had come by a few times to check up on the two ex-trainers, always scolding Jordan on asking too many questions. Jordan kept asking about the hunting group, and if Candice had gotten any closer to figuring out how to tell the rest of the town about their food solution.

"I swear, Jordan, if you ask me one more time, I won't tell you any new information."

Jordan scowled and looked away. "This is what you get for making me stay here."

"I'm not the one making you stay here, Nurse Joy is."

"You made me come back here."

"That's beside the point," sighed Candice. "You can get back out there in around… three weeks? Is that right, Nurse Joy?"

The pink haired nurse turned around. "I would say a little longer than that since it was bad, but yes, around three weeks."

Jordan groaned and hung her head. She couldn't keep doing this. This past week had felt like torture! There was no way she was going to do this for another three. Axel said there were plenty of things to do, but what in the world could he be talking about? He loved playing with the little kids, but Jordan had no idea how to act around them!

Candice handed her a blanket. "Clam down. They're not that bad." Jordan raised an eyebrow and took the blanket. "Stay warm. I'll stop by again tomorrow."

The former gym leader left the Pokémon Center, leaving Jordan to figure out what to do with her time. She wrapped the blanket around her, wearing it like a cape, and got up. She walked over to Axel. He was sitting away from the kids, taking a break from playing with them.

"I don't know how they have so much energy."

Jordan raised an eyebrow and smirked. "I can't believe you're tired. By the way you act, I though you were an oversized toddler."

"Hey!"

Jordan replaced her smirk with a bored expression, and sat down next to Axel. "Do you really think we have to stay here for a another three weeks?"

"Jordan Rhodes!" Jordan flinched and looked at Nurse Joy. "You'd better not be thinking of leaving here!"

Jordan groaned. "How can she tell?"

"She has good ears." Axel laughed. "And recently, you've been known for trying to leave."

Jordan rolled her eyes. "What do you suggest I do, genius? Play with kids? Not gonna happen."

"Just try it. They've been waiting to try and play with you. You just scare them away with that face of yours."

"My face?"

"Yeah. That scowl thing you always have going on."

"I'm not scowling."

"Ah," Axel crossed his arms and nodded, "Then it's a 'resting bitch face.'"

Jordan sighed and looked away. "Jake seems okay with it."

"But you can't take a compliment form him without getting all red in the face."

"Shut up, yes I can."

Axel raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? Before last week, when was the last time someone showed their thanks to you like Jake?"

"Well…"

"Go on."

Jordan's eyebrows knit together while she tried to think of an example. "Okay! Fine. I know shit about kids. They're strange little creatures that have way too much energy!"

Axel smirked, causing Jordan to roll her eyes. It didn't matter. She could _attempt_ to mess around with the little devils. Besides, maybe Axel was right. Maybe this did help pass the time just a little faster.

Jordan groaned, pinched the bridge of her nose, and looked at Axel.

"Fine."

Axel raise an eyebrow. "Fine what?"

"I'll attempt to play with the kids."

Axel's eyes sparkled. "No way!" He jumped up. "You're serious about this, right? You aren't pulling my leg?"

"Yes, I'm serious. Now stop acting like you're two before I change my mind."

"Yeah, it's not like you're going to change your mind anyway."

"And why's that?"

Axel looked down at Jordan and smiled. "Because you're going crazy without anything to do here. My suggestion of playing with kids is the only one you've got."

"DO you want me to prove you wrong right now?"

Axel raised his hands in surrender. "No, so just come on."

Axel led Jordan to the group of kids. Some of them kept running around, while others stopped and stared at Jordan. Jordan, the girl who normally kept to herself was actually walking towards them?

"Okay kiddos!" Axel smiled at the group and leaned on his crutches for support. "Today, Jordan is going to play with us!"

The children stayed quiet. They didn't know what to think of Jordan being there. She didn't talk very often unless she was arguing with Axel, or talking about things with Candice.

Jordan internally cringed. Sh knew this was a bad idea. The children just stared at her like a science experiment. Something about her was fascinating to them, and she didn't like it.

Jake stepped forward. Jordan looked down at him. A drop of sweat slid down her cheek, and she gulped. Jake smiled.

"Do you want to put a puzzle together?"

Jordan's eyes widened. They had puzzles there? She nodded, and Jake led her to an area with a little table. There was a puzzle with a box right next to it. Jordan looked at the box and her eyes widened when she saw what the image was.

"That's a map of the Sinnoh Region."

Jake nodded, his green eyes sparkling. "It's only half done though. You wanna help me finish it?"

Jordan smiled and nodded. She sat down with Jake at the table, and started working on the rest of the puzzle. Soon, all the other kids started crowding around and working on the puzzle as well.

Jake looked up at Jordan. She put a piece of Mt. Coronet in place and looked up.

"What?"

Jake leaned forward and looked at Jordan with expectant eyes. "You used to be a pokémon trainer, right?"

Jordan, taken aback by the question, did what any normal person would. She leaned back and fell off of the chair she was sitting on. It was silent for a few moments, and then everyone around her erupted into laughter. Jordan sighed, got up, and put the chair back in place. Sh sat back down, and looked away, her cheeks tinted pink.

"Wooow," Axel said in-between breaths, "that was so stupid! I mean, how do you fall off a chair so spectacularly horribly like that?"

Jordan ran a hand through her short brown bob while Axel kept making fun of her.

"I mean seriously. You have the grace of a _gazelle_."

Jordan glared at him. "Are you done?"

"Yeah," chimed in Jake, "I want Jordan to answer my question!"

All the attention was on Jordan again. She sighed internally. This was use a pain. She didn't want to talk about it. But then again, she couldn't really say no to this kid.

"Yeah I was a pokémon trainer."

All the children started _oooo_ -ing. They started asking many questions. Jordan was surprised. Did these kids not realize that pokémon were dangerous? Were they still in awe of the pocket monsters?

"It may sound cool," said Axel, "but pokémon aren't creatures to be messed with. They are very dangerous."

He gave Jordan a thumbs up, and she nodded her thanks.

"We know that," said one of the kids, "we just want to know what your team was like! You went on a journey with your pokémon, right?"

Jordan nodded. Jake stared right at her, excitement all over his face.

"What was your team?"

"Weavile, sylveon, and empollen."

"Just three?"

Jordan nodded. "Thy knew a variety of moves, and we always trained a lot so we wouldn't be taken down by something like a type weakness."

"Did you get to go to any new regions?"

Jordan looked at the little girl who asked. She had straight blond hair pulled into a braid and forest green eyes.

"Yeah." Jordan nodded. "In the middle of my journey in Sinnoh, I went to Kalos. I found out none of my pokémon could mega evolve, so I came back here to finish the gym challenge."

"Is that why you had a sylveon?"

Jordan nodded, smiling sadly. Her eevee, Olwen, had evolved in Kalos after Jordan found out none of her pokémon could mega evolve.

Mega evolution. The cause of many trainer deaths once it started. Some pokémon were in the middle of a battle, instantly turning their attacks towards their trainers. Mega evolved pokémon were even worse. They killed crowds of people with one attack.

Jordan got up. "No more questions." She turned and walked away. She grabbed her burgundy parka, and pulled it over her black turtleneck. Jordan walked towards the back of the Pokémon Center, into the room she was staying in for the time being. Her hadn't was inside her coat pocket the entire time.

She took the ultra ball out from her pocket, and traced the design with her thumb. The once smooth coating was covered with scratches. She just couldn't bring herself to break it after her weevil ran away. She knew she was still clutching to the past. She knew things would never go back to normal. But somehow, holding on to the ultra ball just felt _right._ She didn't want to throw it all away and forget.

Even if she was stuck in this hell, she wasn't going to let herself forget the best years of her life. Even if things wouldn't go back, she would survive.


	7. A Strange Visitor

"Finally!"

Jordan stretched her arms. Nurse Joy had just finished clearing both Jordan and Axel to leave. Jordan's cuts were healed—only a few light scars remained. Axel was left still walking around with a slight limp, but other than that, he was also okay to leave. The ex-trainer claimed that it didn't even hurt anymore.

Jordan immediately ran towards the exit of the Pokémon Center.

"Hold on!"

Jordan stopped and turned around. What else was going to hold her there? She wanted to finally leave the center. Nurse Joy was walking toward the brunette.

"You may be allowed to leave the Pokémon Center," started Nurse Joy, "but you should try to stay behind the gates for a little while longer. I don't want a repeat visit from you so soon."

"I'll be careful."

Nurse Joy grabbed Jordan's shoulder. "I'm serious. You shouldn't do anything to get yourself hurt again so soon."

Jordan pushed the nurse's hand off. "I know. I'm not planning on getting hurt again."

Nurse Joy nodded and turned around, satisfied with Jordan's answer. Jordan left the Pokémon Center. She was going to find out what was happening around town without having to wait for Candice's report.

As Jordan walked around, she saw that there wasn't much of a difference. _I guess everything was okay while I was stuck in there._

Jordan stretched, enjoying the cool air against her face. It was cold, but it felt nice being outside compared to being stuck inside for so long.

Even though she was terrible at farming, Jordan decided to stop by the fields. She wanted to see where they were at on food. Based on that information, she could push for Candice to introduce the idea of eating meat faster.

As Jordan was walking to the fields, she felt something on her head. She touched it, and her hand came away wet. She looked around, and saw that snow was starting to fall. Winter had started.

Jordan picked up the pace and kept walking towards the fields. When she got there, she saw two people tending to the earth, one blond woman, and a man with dark green hair. They were trying to see if anything had grown.

"Is there anything I can do?"

The woman with blond hair looked up at Jordan, trying to stifle a laugh. "You, help? Jordan, you have terrible luck with plants. With you around, nothing will end up growing well."

Jordan sighed. "How's the harvesting going?"

"We'll have enough."

"That's it?"

"You don't need to know everything that goes on here. That's Candice's job."

"I'm close to her."

"Like that means anything. Why don't you go out and do some recon? That's what you're good for."

Jordan scowled, then walked away. Was it that difficult to understand that she wanted to help out a little big? She just wanted to know where they were at with the food. She shook her head. It didn't matter. She was finally out of the Pokémon Center, and she could do whatever the hell she wanted.

Screams interrupted Jordan's thoughts. She heard them coming from the gate facing Acuity Lakefront. She sprinted toward the direction of the gate. When she got there, she silently cursed that she only had a knife on her. She was forced to leave her bow in her house while she healed. Nurse Joy said something about how the children shouldn't be exposed to too many weapons yet. That was never happening again.

Jordan climbed up the watch post, and looked down at the outside of the gate. There was a boy with dark blue hair a few years younger than her banging on the gate. Jordan looked up towards the white route. She couldn't see any pokémon making their way to the gate.

"Hey!" The boy looked up at her, his pale face covered with scratches and cuts. "Stop hitting the gate!"

"Y-you guys have to, to help me!"

Jordan's gaze hardened, and the lookout next to her tensed. "Why should we help you?"

"Jordan, chill on the tone." The lookout next to her whispered and put her hand on the ledge.

"We can't act like pushovers, Sasha."

Sasha brushed a part of her snow white hair behind her ear, a nervous habit of hers. She then tightened her ponytail. "You're right. I guess you're usually right about these things, huh?"

Jordan replied with a curt nod.

"Answer, boy, why should we help you? Why are you here?"

"There's t-trouble! In, in Eterna!"

The two girls looked at each other. What did her mean? If there was a camp in Eterna, and other survivors needed help, maybe Snowpoint could benefit from this in the future.

"Sasha," Jordan looked at the woman's grey eyes, "go get Candice."

Sasha nodded, and descended the latter in search for the leader of Snowpoint. Jordan looked back down at the boy.

"We're getting our leader, so sit tight."

"W-what! What about the pokémon?"

"You'll be fine." Jordan rolled her eyes. This guy made his way to Snowpoint, but he was freaked out over some pokémon? It wasn't like he was attacked. Jordan, on the other hand, was ready to do more recon already. Even after getting injured from a pokémon attack.

Jordan turned and spotted Axel walking around. Form a distance, it didn't look like he was limping at all. Maybe he just needed to walk around before the limp disappeared completely. Jordan smirked. She could get Axel to get her bow for her. Just in case this idiot attracted pokémon to the camp.

"Axel!" The raven haired male turned. He grinned.

"Jordan! Trying something more productive than recon?"

"Shut up, I'm just stepping in for a little bit. There's this idiot out here yelling. Can you go get my bow for me?"

Axel's grin was replaced by a knowing expression. He nodded and ran in the direction of Jordan's house. Once Axel was out of sight, Sasha returned with Candice. The two women climbed the ladder and looked at the boy down at the gate. Candice looked at Jordan. "Sasha let me know most of the situation. You say this kid has news from Eterna?"

Jordan nodded.

"Wow," mused Candice, "I has always hoped that there were other settlements like ours, but now it might be true."

"He could be lying."

"Jordan's right," said Sasha, "you have to remember that he might just want an in to the camp. There's no way someone can survive on their own out there."

Jordan glared at Sasha, and the other woman quickly corrected herself. "I mean it's not very common. You're proof of that, Jordan." Jordan nodded and looked back at Candice.

"He might be luring us into a trap. He could easily fuck us over and leave like nothing happened."

Candice stared down at the boy. "I don't think so…besides, if something is happening in Eterna, it would be good to know. We could prepare to make sure nothing like that ends up happening here in Snowpoint."

"I still don't like it." Jordan frowned. She turned around and saw that Axel was returning with her bow and quiver. He tossed them up to her, and she caught them with ease. "Thanks!"

Axel nodded, and Jordan turned back to Candice. "If you let him in, I'll be the one to watch him." Jordan gripped her bow. "He won't go anywhere."

"Okay, calm down." Sasha put her hands up in an attempt to calm Jordan.

"I am calm."

"Sasha, open the gate."

Sasha nodded to Candice, then climbed down from the watch post. She and two of the other lookouts slide the gate open, just enough from the boy to get through. He scrambled inside, fear written all over his face. Jordan and Candice climbed down the watch post, Jordan already having nocked an arrow. Candice put her hand in front of Jordan, then approached the boy.

"Hey, you're safe in here. You don't need to worry. We have gates that will hold up and keep pokémon out. I'm Candice, what's your name?"

"K-Kane."

"Okay, Kane, how about we go inside the Pokémon Center and have a little chat? My friend Jordan is going to come with us." Candice turned to look at Jordan, and stared at Jordan's bow. Jordan sighed and lowered it, but she didn't take the arrow out. That was as good as ti was going to get.

Candice led Kane to the Pokémon Center, Jordan following close behind. Axel caught up to them.

"Jordan, what's going on?"

"This kid says he has news from Eterna."

"For real?"

Jordan nodded. "Candice wants to immediately trust him, but I don't buy it. Why come all the way out to Snowpoint?"

"I'm sure Candice has her reasons."

Jordan stayed silent. They entered the Pokémon Center, and some of the kids stepped back once they saw the stranger and Jordan's bow. Candice turned to look at Jordan. Her eyes widened when she saw Axel, but didn't address it.

"You talk to Nurse Joy. I'll show Kane to a room where we can talk."

"And leave you alone with this kid?"

"I'll be fine, Jordan," said Candice, "just do this."

Jordan reluctantly nodded and stepped away to talk to Nurse Joy while Axel tried to calm the kids. She found the pink haired woman in a back room, getting some of the canned food for the kids, who were still staying away from Jordan. Some of them thought that her bow was cool, but they all had the sense that something was going on. Axel was also distracting them with some fun games.

"Joy."

"Oh, Jordan. Not that I don't want you here, but why are you back so soon?"

"Keep them safe. There was this guy outside the gate saying that something happened in Eterna. I don't trust him, but Candice insists on hearing him out in here."

Nurse Joy nodded. "All the way from Eterna, huh?"

"Yeah," nodded Jordan, "he must be really lucky. He only has a few scratches."

"He's injured? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Huh?"

Nurse Joy pulled on Jordan's ear, causing the younger woman to wince. The children watching started to laugh. "We don't want him getting an infection, so you should have told me."

"What? He isn't even a member of Snowpoint. Why waste our supplies? Nurse Joy, you can't just treat anyone that walks through here."

"I see, so you want him to get an infection, then not be able to tell us anything about Eterna."

"…"

Nurse Joy sighed, then let go of Jordan. Jordan straightened, and fixed her hold on her bow. "Right. Let's go back there."

"Axel, do you mind watching them while I take care of something?"

"I got you Nurse Joy, don't worry!"

Nurse Joy nodded, and turned around. She and Jordan walked back to where Candice was talking with Kane. Jordan looked around, and saw that there was only one room with the door fully closed. She walked up to it and knocked. Candice opened the door, and let both Jordan and Nurse Joy in.

Jordan walked into the room, and saw Kane tense up once he saw her. She smiled. Good. Hopefully, he wouldn't try anything while she had a weapon in the room. then again, Jordan wasn't sure if Kane had anything on him. If he wasn't who he said he was, things could go downhill.

Jordan stood next to Candice and leaned in. "You checked him, right?"

"Checked him?"

Jordan rolled her eyes. "For weapons, Candice."

"Oh. No I didn't."

"Are you kidding me?"

Candice turned her head to look at Jordan, causing the other girl to step back. "I wanted to make sure he was calm, that he could trust me so he can tell us about the situation in Eterna."

Jordan sighed. "Fine. I'll check him after. He had to have _something_ to make it all the way here. No way he did it with no supplies." Jordan turned to look at Kane. Nurse Joy was tending to some of his cuts. Jordan took her arrow off the bowstring and inspected it as she approached Kane.

"So, Kane. You say there's some trouble in Eterna. Why come all the way to Snowpoint? I would think you would try going somewhere closer to get help instead of making the trek out here."

Candice reached out to grab Jordan's arm. "This isn't an interrogation. He's just here to tell us whatever is going on in Eterna."

"Why? So we can send supplies?" Jordan lowered her voice. "We're already low as is. You think sending stuff to another camp that might not even exist is a good idea?"

"People are fighting!" Jordan and Candice turned to look at Kane. The blue hair boy looked down, his sky blue eyes already glossing over. "People back in Eterna are starting to fight. It's not safe there anymore. They're attacking each other. With weapons like your friend."

Jordan smirked and twisted her arrow between her fingers. Candice frowned. "What are they fighting over?"

"Pokémon."

The three women in the room looked at each other. Candice knelt down in front of Kane and placed her hand on his knee. "What do you mean, Kane?"

"They're fighting over whether pokémon really want to attack humans or not."

"Of course pokémon want to attack humans," said Jordan. "We're not at the top of the food chain. something happened to pokémon, and now they are coming after us."

"I know," said Kane. "Gardenia sent me to get help. If we don't act, things might get a lot worse. More people will die."

"We have enough trouble trying to keep our people from dying," said Jordan. "Why should we help you?"

"We could make a deal," said Kane, his fear from earlier gone. "Snowpoint is hard to live in around this time of year. you guys have to go crazy storing up on food." 

"And?" asked Candice, her curiosity officially piqued.

"We can help. There's some room in Eterna for other people. We're also able to grow food year-round, which you guys are running low on right around this time."

Jordan thought back to when she checked out the gardens. That was probably why they didn't want to tell her anything. Their food situation was bad, but that wasn't supposed to be common knowledge.

"We can make an alliance, a deal. We can share our food, and you can help us protect our people."

Candice stayed quiet, and Jordan looked down at her bow. This could help them with their food problem in Snowpoint, but was food really worth risking some people's lives? They didn't even know what kind of weapons the alleged people who were fighting carried. This could be more trouble than what it was worth.

"Okay," said Candice. Jordan looked at her with wide eyes. She really thought this was a good idea? Jordan grabbed Candice by the arm and pulled her away.

"What do you mean? Why are you agreeing to this? We already have a solution to our food issue."

"Don't worry," said Candice, "I'm going to send you, Axel, and Sasha—" Jordan raised an eyebrow "—first to check out the situation. We can decide based on the information you three bring back to me."

"Did you just say Sasha was going? She's a _lookout_."

"Exactly. She has a good eye, which will help two people who were just cleared to leave the watchful eye of Nurse Joy."

Jordan sighed, and Candice turned to Kane. "I'm going to send three people with you. They will check out the situation there and see if you are telling the truth or not." Kane nodded. "Jordan, get Axel and Sasha, and tell them the situation. You guys will leave tomorrow after getting supplies."

Jordan nodded and left the room. This was going to be interesting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, long time no read. I'm sorry the chapter is later than usual. A lot later. I tried to make it a little longer than usual to make up for it, and as always, I'll do my best not to be that late again. I'm having to take classes online, so I'm hoping that will give me more time to write and upload. You guys need something to read during this outbreak, right? This thing is crazy, but the key is not to freak out about it. I mean, we still have to take it seriously, even though it sounds like a glorified flu. Wash your hands, don't touch your face and all that jazz. I'm sure I don't have to repeat something that's been on the news nonstop, haha.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and stay tuned for the next one. And stay safe out there!


	8. The Start of a New Pokémon Adventure…Didn't Think That Would Happen Again

Jordan looked at the gates. She felt something strange, something she wasn't sure of. She was going on an adventure. It was a deadly one, but an adventure nonetheless. It had been so long since she was out in the wild, she couldn't believe it was happening again. Was that strange feeling nostalgia?

"Okay, so you three are clear on what to do?"

Jordan turned back to look at Candice. They were waiting for Kane to appear—against Jordan's suggestion not to leave the boy alone—so Candice had shown up to make sure Jordan, Axel, and Sasha knew exactly why they were leaving.

"We leave, go to Eterna, figure out if their plan is legit, then come back here to tell you." Axel finished stuffing an axe in his backpack. He stood up straight and patted the hilt of his sword. "Did I leave anything out?"

"That's everything," nodded Candice. "While you're there, you will deal with any fighting that goes on and protect Gardenia. If we want this deal to work, she has to stay alive."

Sasha adjusted her jacket, flipping back the hood. She fixed the knives on the inside of her jacket and on her belt. "No worries. We'll make sure she stays alive. Anything to protect the good people of Snowpoint."

Jordan adjusted her own pack, and made sure she had enough food and supplies. She had about five cans of extra food—she figured she could get food out there in the wild. A stray bidoof or boundary would do the trick. Axel had already tried it before, so he would be okay with it, but as far as Jordan knew, Sasha had never tried pokémon meat. Her reaction would be interesting. Candice had never gotten around to introducing the idea to the rest of the town.

"Okay!" The group of four turned to look at Kane, who was running to catch up with them. He barely carried any supplies; apparently his pack disappeared along the way to the camp, which explained why he didn't show up with one at Snowpoint. Kane had no weapons—he might have lost them along the way trying to get away from some pokémon. Kane adjusted his new snow jacket. Someone in town had given him a new set of clothes that would fare better in the cold weather. His jacket was blue to match his hair, and he had a black shirt underneath.

Kane approached the group, and Jordan eyed him warily. "No weapons?"

Axel placed his hand on Jordan's shoulder. "There's enough of us to survive a pokémon attack, we'll be fine."

"Whatever." Jordan turned around. "I guess it's better not to have him get in the way."

"Jordan," said Candice, "you'd better calm down out there. This is important."

"I know this is important. I just don't know how this is going to go. It'd be better for all of us to have something to fight with."

Candice looked around. "You guys should get going. It might start snowing soon, and the routes will get worse."

"Right." Sasha stretched and flipped a knife. "Let's get going, shall we?"

The group of four walked through the gates to the white route in front of them. The trees were covered in thick layers of snow, and snow was starting to fall. If they didn't hurry, it would become more difficult to travers through the route. The four ex-trainers walked through he route, both Jordan and Sasha keeping an eye out for any lurking pokémon.

Jordan took off her glasses and attempted to clean them with the hem of her shirt. She only succeeded in smudging them even further. Jordan sighed. Just her luck not to have anything to effectively clean her glasses with. Jordan put her glasses back on, and looked around. Where was Kane?

"Hey." Axel and Sasha turned to look at Jordan. "Where did blue hair go?"

"Blue hair? Oh, you mean Kane." Axel looked around. "Did we lose him somehow?"

"We couldn't have," said Sasha. "There isn't a lot of snow yet."

The three of them looked around, trying to spot the boy from Eterna. There was no way he could disappear. There were no pokémon around—getting attacked wasn't a possibility.

"Kane!" shouted Sasha, "Where are you?"

Jordan walked around. Maybe he saw something and decided to hide? "Sasha, keep an eye out for any pokémon that might appear."

Sasha nodded, and Jordan and Axel walked around, looking for Kane. They found the blue haired boy sifting through the snow. His expression was determined while he looked for his treasure.

"Kane," said Axel, "what the hell are you doing? You weren't supposed to stray from the group."

Kane, thoroughly ignoring them, dug up a set of dual swords, then climbed up the tree to pull down a bag. He pulled the pack on, then picked up his swords. He straightened, and froze upon noticing that the two members of Snopoint were looking down on him. He gulped, then scratched his cheek. "H-hi?"

Jordan sighed and grabbed Kane by his pack, dragging him towards Sasha while Axel tried to get her to stop. Jordan unceremoniously dropped Kane, then looked back at Axel. "What?"

"You're gonna freak the poor kid out. We can't go days like this, so calm down."

Jordan rolled her eyes and sighed. "Fine. Not my fault if he ends up running off." Jordan looked back to Sasha. "Found him digging up some weapons and supplies."

Sasha crossed her arms. "So this was why he packed light while we were leaving. Kane, why didn't you just bring your belonging inside with you?"

Kane regained his composure and stood up, patting the snow off of his pants and back. "I didn't know what if would be like inside the gate. If I hid my things, you guys wouldn't be able to take them away if you didn't trust me."

Jordan shrugged. She supposed it made sense. After all, she would have taken his weapons away the instant he crossed the threshold. The kid was smart, she could give him that. And he hid is supplies in a way that most wild pokémon wouldn't look to get. Not many pokémon around Snowpoint liked searching for food high up in the branches of the trees. They would hunt either other pokémon or humans for that. The trees near Snowpoint rarely grew fruit—there was no point in looking.

"Fair point," said Jordan. She started walking again. "Let's move. We don't want to get caught out here in a blizzard."

The group started walking again. Jordan felt someone's gaze on her. She tried to ignore it and keep walking, but the feeling wouldn't go away. She tried to focus on Axle and Sasha's conversation, but it did nothing to calm her. Jordan looked to her left. Kane was staring at her. She stared back, making him flinch. "What are you looking at?"

"Nothing!"

Jordan looked forward, trying to pay attention to their surroundings. She couldn't see any pokémon following them. The snow was starting to get worse—they were reaching the part of the route that was a perpetual blizzard. They had survived through Acuity Lakefront.

"Stay together," said Sasha. "It's difficult to navigate up ahead." They all covered their faces as the snow picked up. The wind howled, preventing them from easily hearing each other. Jordan groaned and snow covered her glasses. She couldn't see anything, deciding to grab Axel's backpack instead. Axel looked back at her, but didn't say anything to tease Jordan about it.

It took them hours to get halfway. Jordan felt Axel stop. She heard him shout something, but couldn't hear anything. He moved closer to Jordan and shouted in her ear. "There might be some pokémon up ahead! They haven't noticed us yet! Move slowly!"

"Okay!" Jordan nodded, crouched down, and started moving slower with the group. The snow was almost up to her thighs, forcing them all to navigate the route at a snail's pace. Jordan couldn't see much with her glasses covered with snow, but she was able to wipe some of it away to see the pokémon. Jordan could make out the forms of a small group of machoke. If the humans were spotted, the pokémon would not hold back. They continued to move, pausing every few steps so the pokémon wouldn't notice them.

Jordan lost track of the amount of time they spent making their way past the pokémon, but she was glad when they were finally out of that hell of a route. The blizzard started to subside, meaning they had successfully made it through yet another one of Sinnoh's slowly routes. Once they were a good distance away, Kane collapsed.

"I thought we were dead…"

"We're not safe yet," said Jordan. They were still in danger of a pokémon attack until they arrived in Eterna. Getting attacked by a pokémon was a constant threat to them now that they were outside of the safety of Snowpoint. It didn't help that they were all out of breath either.

Sasha took out two of her knives and looked around. "I think we may have run across a slight hiccup."

Axel took out his sword, and Jordan did the same with her bow. A group of sneasel were slowly closing in. Kane took out his dual swords and held them out in front of him.

"Stay close," said Jordan. "We can cover each other's back. We won't outrun them, so our best bet is to fight them off."

The group turned around, backs to each other. Jordan nocked and arrow, and started firing at the sneasel. Sasha threw knives at the ones further away, and Axel and Kane took care of the ones up close.

Jordan nocked another arrow, and shot it at a sneasel that jumped at Axel. The pokémon were a blur. They attacked Jordan and the others without relenting—they were going for the kill, and would keep attacking until the humans were unable to move.

Sasha gasped as a sneasel swiped at her leg. She immediately stabbed its neck with one of her knives, then slashed at another one. While Sasha was distracted with one of the sneasel that came close to her, Jordan shot an arrow at another that was closing in.

"Thanks."

"My pleasure." Jordan huffed and looked to her left. Kane used both of his swords to decapitate sneasel, or slice them in half. He used a mix of both slashing and stabbing to push the sneasel back. Kane stabbed one that jumped at him, but received a slash to the arm in return. He winced and held his arm. The sneasel knew what they were doing—they were trying to immobilize one of Kane's arms so he couldn't attack with two swords.

Jordan aimed at another sneasel, but the pokémon started retreating. Jordan kept the arrow nocked and pulled the drawstring taut. There could still be one or two waiting for them to have their guards down. The group stayed tense for another ten minutes, and relaxed once they saw that no more pokémon were coming to attack them. Jordan put the arrow in her quiver, then walked around to pick up any arrows that were still intact. She manage to recover almost all of them. She didn't have more croagunk poison to coat the tips, but now that they were on their way to Eterna, she could get more.

Jordan sighed and looked up. The sun was close to setting. It would be a good idea to at least make it to Mt. Coronet before they stopped. They would have to stay in this spot for a little bit to recover. Sasha and Kane had gotten hurt, and they would have to rest before moving again.

Sasha was tending to Kane's arm—it was the worse of the two wounds. All four of them were covered ins scratches, and luckily nothing was too serious. Axel approached Jordan.

"So, what's the plan, resident wilderness expert?"

"Call me that again, and I'll impale you with an arrow."

"Okay, sorry. What's the plan?"

"We'll have to stay here for a little bit to catch our breath," said Jordan. "It would be better to get to Mt. Coronet before it gets dark."

"Right."

Jordan looked around. There were enough dead sneasel for dinner. Since Axel had an axe—possibly stolen again—he could get some firewood for them. Jordan picked up a sneasel, and tied it to her pack. She passed another one to Axel so he could do the same. Jordan wanted to get another, but those pokémon were heavy. It would only hinder their progress.

"Axel, mind getting some wood?"

"Sure." Axel turned and started walking. He looked back and called over his shoulder, "Don't worry, I won't go too far!"

Axel soon returned with a bundle of firewood, and Jordan stood up. She put the pack on, and looked at the others. "Let's get going; it would be a good idea to get to the entrance of Mt. Coronet before nightfall."

Sasha and Kane nodded, the former eyeing Jordan and Axel suspiciously. She said nothing, and started walking. The group had one more route to get through before they were at the base of the mountain.

A few more hours passed before they arrived at Mt. Coronet. The sun was starting to set—it would be dark soon. It was a wonder they were still alive; they had come across a few more pokémon, but the creatures didn't attack them. The group of four had managed to avoid drawing attention to themselves. Jordan looked around, and stopped when the entrance was in sight.

"Why aren't we stopping at the entrance?" asked Sasha. She turned to look at Jordan. "Isn't that what you wanted?"

"It would be stupid to stop at the entrance," replied Jordan. "It would be suicide to willingly corner ourselves like that. We can see the entrance; that's enough."

"I'd listen to our resident MacGyver."

Jordan glared at Axel, and the boy proceeded to set down his backpack and the firewood. Meanwhile, Jordan grabbed a sneasel and started skinning it. She put its claws in her pack to be refined into weapons at a later time.

"Jordan, what the hell are you doing?" Jordan looked up at Sasha. The white hared woman was staring down at her. Jordan looked back down at the sneasel and started to cut through the meat. She had found a cleaver knife in another abandoned house while she was packing for the journey. Other people would frown upon ransacking the houses in the town, but Jordan thought it was best to maximize her chances of survival.

"Dinner," she replied.

"We packed food, there's no need to do this."

Jordan looked up at Sasha and rolled her eyes. "Okay, so we'll eat the cans now while there's a perfectly good source of meat here, and starve while we're inside the mountain."

Sasha looked horrified. "You're really suggesting we _eat_ that?"

"It's not that bad." Axel looked up. "Don't knock it til you try it."

"You've eaten it too?!"

Axel shrugged. "It's better than starving later on."

Sasha sighed and turned around. "I'll take my chances starving."

"Fine by me." Jordan continued to hack away at the meat. Sasha sighed, and Kane approached them. His eyes immediately widened at the sight of the pokémon.

"Don't tell me…you were one of _those_ people?"

Jordan looked up at him. "…"

"I knew there were some trainers that ate pokémon, but I didn't actually believe it." Kane looked away, disgusted. "You monster."

"Don't think you know me." Jordan glared at Kane. Did they think she actually liked butchering sneasel? She used to have a wavily as a partner, damn it. It was always like killing Silvester whenever she killed and ate one. She simply learned how to control how she felt over that after living in the wild.

Jordan finished butchering the pokémon. She stood up and looked at them. "We're setting up camp here and eating dinner. We'll tackle the mountain in the morning."

The three others nodded, and Jordan proceeded to light a fire. She and Axel arranged the wood, then Jordan lit it. She cut strips of meat, then stabbed them with the skewers she used the first time she cooked meat in Snowpoint. She stuck the skewers in the snow so the meat was close to the fire. Once she finished, she stood up and stretched. She had taken off her black gloves before she dealt with the meat. and now her hands were bloody. She walked to an area that didn't look like it was stepped in a lot, and cleaned her hands with the snow. She wiped her hands on her black jeans, then slipped her gloves back on. She would need to do it again later, but for now it was okay.

Jordan caught Sasha and Kane looking at the fire with distaste, but Jordan didn't care. If they wanted to judge her for eating meat and starve, it was fine with her. Jordan approached the fire and turned the skewers so the meat could cook on the other side. She then poked at the fire, making sure that the embers wouldn't go out soon. It would only get colder as the night went on. Jordan sat by the fire and looked around.

Sasha and Kane refused to sit by the fire, opting to sit a few feet away instead. That was fine. They would end up by the fire whether they liked it or not. Axel was keeping watch while they all relaxed, making sure that no pokémon attacks surprised them. Jordan shifted so she was laying on the ground and looking up at the sky. It had been a long time since she was in the wild like this. It was different this time. This time, she had a goal other than surviving, and she wasn't alone. Working in groups wasn't her forte, but she had to admit that there was strength in numbers. Jordan looked at the meat, and grabbed a skewer.

"Food's ready."

Jordan and Axel started eating the sneasel meat, while Sasha and Kane inched closer to the fire, eating some horrible looking canned stuff. Jordan was glad she wasn't stuck eating that.

"Are you sure you guys don't want to try any?" Axel waved a piece of meat in front of Sasha and Kane. "That canned food doesn't look very good. Or filling."

"It's fine," said Sasha. "I'll survive."

"I'd rather starve than eat that shit," said Kane. Jordan rolled her eyes.

"Don't expect me to give you any food in that mountain."

"You need me alive! I'm the only one who can show you exactly where Eterna's camp is. If you show up without me, they'll assume the worst."

"You smug little shit." Jordan pulled out her dagger and inspected it, hoping to intimidate Kane. "We can just tell them that we couldn't stop a pokémon attack in time. They should expect that anything can happen out here."

Jordan felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked back, and saw that Axel was shaking his head. Jordan knew she couldn't blow up at this kid—this alliance was essential to Snowpoint's survival in the winter—but that didn't mean she would play nice all the time.

Jordan took another bite of her food. "Fine I'm going to sleep so I can take watch later. One of you take the first shift. Wake me up for the third round and don't let that asshole over there on a shift by himself."

Jordan took a blanket out of her bag and laid it down in the snow. She laid down, wrapped it around herself, then went to sleep. Journeys like this were tiring. It would be a miracle if she didn't go crazy by the time they reached Eterna.


	9. Pokémon Adventure…What's Not to Love?

Jordan yawned as she watched the sun rise. She had taken the last shift, which meant she was the one who woke up the earliest, but it didn't bother her. She didn't mind small amounts of sleep—which trainer actually _slept_ when they were traveling from city to city? Jordan was good at getting small amounts of sleep and still being able to function the next day. Besides, if they took a break, she could take a quick nap.

Hopefully they would be able to make it through the mountain in as little time as possible. If they were cornered by rock-type pokémon, it was highly likely they wouldn't make it out alive. Now that pokémon attack people, the majority of the populous were terrified of rock-types. Weapons had no effect on them, unless they were made of steel-type pokémon, but even then not much would happen. It couldn't be expected that pointy sticks would work on rocks.

"Morning," said Axel. He yawned and stretched. "Any news?"

"I would have woken you all up if something happened."

"True."

Jordan looked at Kane and Sasha. They had to get along if they were to make it through the mountain. It would be best not to bring up the matter of food again. That seemed to be the only thing they couldn't agree on. Jordan stretched again and stood up. She looked down at Axel. "We should get going soon."

Axel nodded, and got up as well. He and Jordan started packing up their backpacks, and then nudged Sasha and Kane awake. The two slowly got up and looked around. Sasha looked up at Jordan. "Nothing happened while you were on watch?"

Jordan shook her head. "I would've woken you guys up. Hurry up and get your stuff together; we have to get through the mountain today."

Jordan grabbed a leftover form dinner, and ate it. Axel followed her lead, and the two ate their food away form Sasha and Kane. Sasha and Kane opted not to eat anything, because they had to save what they had. Once they were all packed and ready to go, Jordan kicked snow over their little campfire. It was time to conquer Mt. Coronet.

The group of four approached the entrance, and saw no pokémon. They made sure they had everything they needed, and walked through the entrance. There weren't many pokémon around; the ones they did see seemed to have no interest in them. Jordan led the group through the mountain, trying to find the fastest way through. They took their time, hiding behind boulders and the cliffs present within the mountain.

There was light on the inside, but it was dim. It was dry, and almost silent. Every footstep could be clearly heard.

Jordan was in the front of the group, leading the others through the mountain. She was the one who had been out in the wild the most, so it only made sense. Jordan was a few paces ahead of the rest of the group, making sure that the coast was clear and that it was safe to progress further. Axel was a few steps behind her—he had gone along with Jordan on enough outings to know how to check the area.

Jordan looked behind her to make sure that Sasha and Kane were still there. Fortunately, they were, but they were traveling much slower. They were like damn shellos. Jordan rolled her eyes, and signaled for Axel to stop. Jordan looked back to Sasha and Kane again. "Can you move any slower? We can stay a little closer together."

Sasha nodded while Kane seemed to be holding back some sort of remark. The two caught up to Jordan and Axel, and they continued further. Jordan looked around and leaned on the wall a little bit. It started to crumble, eventually giving way.

"Shit!" Jordan rolled down an incline, quickly getting covered in dirt, scratches, and scrapes. She rolled until she slammed her back on the wall of the small cavern she found herself in.

There were some evolution stones scattered around the floor of the cavern. They cast a light blue light that allowed Jordan to look around. The area she was in was small, but it was very tall. The walls were dry, and there were rock pillars that had crumbled apart, never reaching the ceiling. Everything in the cavern glittered—if only she found this place before all of this happened!

"Jordan?" Axel called down, "Are you okay?"

Jordan stood up and stretched. "Yeah." She looked around to see if there was any way for her to climb back out. She approached the wall and tried to find her footing. The wall was smooth, preventing her from finding a good handhold. She slid down, then stepped away from the wall. She decided to go to the other side of the cavern, then sprinted towards the incline. She got a few feet up the wall, then fell back down. Jordan hit the wall in frustration. "I don't think I can climb back up."

"Hold on," shouted Axel, "I'm going down there!"

Axel looked to Sasha and Kane.

"Is Jordan okay?" asked Sasha. Axel nodded.

"Yeah, but she says there's no way to climb back up. I'm gonna go down there with her to try and find another way out. We'll meet you on the other side."

Axel turned to slide down, but Sasha grabbed his arm. "You don't even know if there's a way to get out form wont here. Are you sure you'll be able to make it out?"

"That's the fun in a pokémon adventure," Axel said with a shrug. "we don't know. Just continue down this path, and you should be able to get out. If we get out first, we won't continue on without you, so I'm hoping you'll wait for us too."

"Of course." Sasha nodded. Axel mock-saluted, then slid down the opening that Jordan had fallen through.

Jordan looked up at Axel as the black haired young man slid down to the bottom of the cavern. "You know there's no way to get back up, right?"

"Yeah, but two heads are better than one. Let's look for a way out."

"What about Sasha and Kane?" Jordan watched Axel stay silent. She frowned and crossed her arms. "What?"

"I didn't think this day would come." Axel wiped a tear away. "Jordan, you're actually caring about someone?"

"Shut up. We came out here for a job, and I want to make sure we still get it done."

"They're gonna meet us on the other side. But let's focus on getting out of here first."

Jordan nodded, and the two started searching around the small cavern. There wasn't much to see—the only thing truly worth noting were the evolution stones that were there. Jordan pushed some of the stones aside, attempting to see if there was anything left behind. The glowing blue stones revealed nothing. Jordan kept walking around, searching for something that looked like an exit.

"Don't you think it's strange?"

"Hm?"

"I didn't think Mt. Coronet would have something like this." Axel looked up. "Do you think people could have done this?"

"Who knows? There were probably some insane people in the past. Just look at all of these evolution stones."

"At least there aren't any pokémon in this place that evolve with stones."

"Don't jinx us!"

Axel rolled his eyes as he walked around the other side of the cavern. "I'm not jinxing us."

Jordan grumbled and continued looking around. Not only were there Dawn Stones, but there were also different shards and Ice Stones. Jordan picked up one of the Ice Stones. It was cold to the touch, almost like her hand would freeze if she held it for too long. Jordan felt like the entire area around her was dropping in temperature. She dropped the stone once her fingers went numb. She had never seen a pokémon that evolved with one of those—there weren't any in Sinnoh, so why was this here?

"Hey! I found a Shiny Stone!"

"I'm sure you'd love to use that on one of the pokémon on your team?"

"Okay, you can stop with the sarcasm. I'm putting it back."

"Good."

Axel walked around one of the rock pillars in the cavern, and discovered a small opening. It was narrow, and looked impossible to fit through. "Hey, I think I found something."

Jordan walked over, and inspected the opening. "You think that's the way out?"

"I don't see anything else."

Jordan looked through the opening, and saw a minuscule amount of light—it could be the way out. She stepped back and looked around. I would be better to make sure there wasn't another opening. They needed to be sure that this would be the right way to go. After a thorough investigation, Jordan couldn't see another opening like that; they were going to have to squeeze through. Jordan and Axel stood across form each other. Who would go first?

Axel didn't seem like he wanted to be the first one in there. He kept looking away form Jordan, never meeting her gaze. He instead elected to look around at all of the evolutionary stones. Axel slowly met Jordan's stare, and smirked sheepishly. "Ladies first."

Jordan sighed. "Fine." She took off her pack; maybe if she dragged it next to her, I would be easier to slide through the opening. Jordan squeezed into the narrow path, and slowly made her way through to the other side. There wasn't any room to turn around, and the walls were snug around her. More scratches cut through Jordan's coat and clothes, and some reached skin. Once Jordan got to the other side, she rubbed her arms. She was in a new area, and she could see the exit of the mountain. There weren't any pokémon around, which was even better.

"Axel! This side is clear! Come through!"

"Okay!"

Jordan looked around this new section of the mountain. It looked like all of the other areas of Mt. Coronet, so how was an area full of evolutionary stones nestles in between all of it?

"That was horrible." Jordan turned to see Axel. Now he was covered in dirt as well. His blue eyes looked around, eventually landing back on Jordan. "This place makes no sense."

"Let's just get out of here."

"Agreed."

The two of them sprinted towards the exit, gasping once they finally had fresh air. The sun was shining down on them, and there was not a patch of snow in sight. Jordan immediately looked up and looked around; she had to figure out where they were. There was a route sign int eh distance, so Jordan immediately walked towards it.

_Route 207_

"The hell?" Jordan stood gaping at the sign. Their plan was to get to Route 211! They were on the wrong side of the mountain!

"What route is this?"

Jordan turned to looked at Axel. Her eyes were wide and her brows were knit together. "Route 207."

"What?"

"Route 2—"

"I heard you the first time! We're on the wrong side of the mountain! How far did that little path take us anyway?"

Jordan shrugged. She crossed her arms and looked around. How were they going to get back to the others? They didn't even have a way to contact them. They could make their way to Eterna, but it would be better for them to have Kane with hem. And if they didn't get back to Sasha and Kane, the two might leave for Eterna without Jordan and Axel!

"Axel, you're sure you told them to wait for us?"

"Yes! But," Axel looked down, "they might leave without us either tonight or tomorrow. I don't know how long they'll wait."

Jordan looked ahead. "Well, I guess we'd better get going. We'll assume they'll leave soon and meet them at Eterna."

"How long are we supposed to wait around for them?" Kane flopped back down on the grass. It felt nice to finally be out of the snow. It looked like he would have to get rid of his coat eventually.

"Until they get here."

"But what if they don't?"

"It's a little dangerous, but we'll wait until tomorrow night. If they're not back by then, we'll have to get to Eterna on our own."

"Are you sure they'll even make it out?"

"I know you and Jordan didn't get off to the greatest start, but she's a survivor. She's always returned from any outing."

Kane huffed and laid back down in the grass. At least he got to relax under the sun. The warmth always made him feel better. As long as any pokémon didn't decide to have nice snack, everything would be fine.

Sasha looked back into the cave. She said that Jordan and Axel would be fine, but did she even believe that? She wasn't just trying to comfort Axel—she said it for herself as well. She did have some faith in Jordan, but Sasha hadn't spoken much to her. Why would she? Jordan was always doing her own thing; it seemed like she preferred risking her life to pokémon over talking to other people. The only ones she every really spoke to in Snowpoint were Axel and Candice.

"So," said Sasha, "any chance they'll try to attack us on sighed once we get to Eterna?"

"The lookouts know I should be coming back with you guys. They don't know how many, but as long as they see me we should be fine."

"What happens if they see a group without you?"

Kane shook his head. "I don't know. That group might be let in, they might not."

Sasha nodded. She looked around again to make sure that there were no pokémon sneaking up on them. The area around them was clear, meaning it would be safe to stay around there for a while longer. If Jordan and Axel didn't emerge from the mountain before Sasha and Kane left, then maybe the former would make their way to Eterna. If they were still alive, that is.

Kane stood up and picked up his two swords. They appeared to be very plain; not old or with intricate designs. His swords were and win Eterna, where they had someone who had learned how to be a blacksmith—weapons were essential to survival in this world now. Kane's blades were silver, with black hilts. The swords were new, but they hadn't failed him yet.

Kane held his swords in front of him, and started practicing. He slowly moved his swords, first slashing down in front, then spinning them around. He turned, then sped up and jumped, bringing both of his swords down in a slashing motion to the ground. He then slashed upwards, first with his right swords, then with his left.

"It looks like you're using Swords Dance."

Kane looked at Sasha. "You think so? I'm not a pokémon."

"I know that. It's just the first thing I thought of."

"Thanks, I guess?"

Sasha looked back to the route. The coast was still clear, but she didn't like that there ere no pokémon hanging around. They didn't come across any while in the mountain either. It was strange, and Sasha didn't like it. Not one bit. Of course there were occasions when people didn't come across any wild pokémon, but based on their track record, she thought they were going to come across some more. Sasha let out a laugh. Maybe Jordan and Axel were pokémon magnets.

"What's so funny?"

Sasha looked up to see Kane standing by her, taking drink out of his water bottle. His coat was on top of this things, leaving him in a black shirt and black baggy pants. His shoulder length blue hair was pulled into a ponytail.

"I'm just thinking that Jordan and Axel are pokémon magnets."

Kane started to laugh as well. "Pokémon magnets? Why do you say that?"

"Well, no pokémon have appeared since we split up. While we were with them, we kept encountering pokémon."

"You're right." Axel chuckled. "It sucks to be them."

They both started laughing, then Kane returned to practicing. He turned back to Sasha. "You're not going to practice?"

"I'm good. I think I'm gonna keep watch. Don't want anything sneaking up on us."

"Fine…but you should practice a little bit later. We should be ready for anything."

"Yeah, which is why I'm on lookout. Besides, they're just throwing knives—it's not that hard."

"Maybe for you. My aim's shit. I'd never be able to do that."

"Have you even tried?"

"No. I _just_ told you my aim is shit. I'd end up stabbing myself or someone else. It's better that I don't try."

Sasha sighed. "You're pretty good with those swords, so I guess I can accept that."

"You have to, cause I'm not switching them out."

"Just train, you knucklehead."

Jordan aimed her bow at a ponyta. She was getting hungry, and there was no way she was going to eat any of the bug-type pokémon. She and Axel decided to go straight to Eterna, and hope that Sasha and Kane decided to do the same. Jordan and Axel hadn't been attacked by any pokémon, which was a miracle based on how their last few outings had gone.

Jordan't stomach growled, bringing her back to the task at hand: dinner. The sun was low in the sky when she and Axel decided to set up camp. While they were clearing the area, Jordan spotted a ponyta in the distance, leading to her current situation.

Jordan frowned as she saw the ponyta get back up—her arrow had only nicked the pokémon's leg. Jordan knew that the fire horse was close to running away at this point. It was looking around, trying to spot the thing that had hurt it. Jordan nocked another arrow in her bow and took aim. She took a breath, then let the arrow sail through the air. The arrow hit the ponyta, making it fall to the ground. Jordan got up and ran towards it.

Th ponyta's mane was still burning, but the fire was growing weaker. Jordan took out her dagger and cut its neck, killing the pokémon. Jordan tried lifting it, but it was too heavy, forcing her to resort to dragging it back to the little camp.

"Woah, you actually got it."

"Yeah." Jordan dropped the half of the fire horse pokémon she was holding down in the ground. The pokémon's mane slowly went out, due to the lack of fuel to burn.

"Have you ever tried ponyta meat?"

Jordan shook her head. "It'll be good though."

"How do you know?"

Jordan shrugged, then focused on the task of butchering the pokémon. She set up everything to cook the meat, then sat around the fire with Axel. She poked at the fire while Axel sat down. "Is this really a good idea?"

"Whatcha mean?"

"Going to Eterna without finding another way to meet up with Sasha and Kane."

"Jorda, I don't think we would make it around in time. We should get to Eterna as fast as possible, then cut across to try and cross paths with them."

Jordan huffed. "Groups are impossible."

Axel laughed. "Just deal with it."

Jordan knew he was right, but that didn't mean she was going to like it. Being in a group was a means to an end; they needed to do it to be able to make a deal with Gardenia. Snowpoint needed help, and this was the only way they were going to get it. So her only option was to deal with it. For Candice's sake, and the rest of Snowpoint too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's official: Writer's Block is a bitch. I've been trying to get this chapter done, and I knew where I wanted it to go, but the words didn't…word. Yeah, that makes sense XD I'm on a roll with these chapters again, so there shouldn't be such a long break like that again.
> 
> In other news, trying to understand the pronunciation of Old English is hell. It might be because the book I have to read for one of my classes explains it briefly, but I still don't get it (T^T) and online class isn't going to help with that. I'll just have to see how it goes.
> 
> Anyways, enough about that. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, albeit a little short, and stay tuned for the next one!


	10. So Close, Yet So Far

"We should try to cut across some of the routes."

"Oh yeah, why?"

"There's nothing saying we have to stay on the path," Jordan explained. "Wouldn't we just be able to go off the path and cut across to the next route that way?"

"Jordan…I know you know that's a bad idea."

Jordan looked away. She knew it was foolish to go and stray off the path—that was where all of the stronger pokémon resided after all. They would only be marching straight to their deaths. "I don't like taking the long way around."

"If you're reckless, you're gonna get us both killed, and I'm not in the mood to die today."

"I'm not reckless."

"Oh really? That's why you just suggested to go into the most dangerous part of the wild."

Jordan sighed and looked forward. The route was clear, and there weren't any roaming pokémon. They had been lucky so far; no pokémon had attacked them. It seemed like they were getting a little too lucky recently. Ever since they left the cave, they hadn't come across anything life-threatening. The last pokémon they had come across was that ponyta they cooked for dinner.

The route was green, very different from the white all around Snowpoint. The world didn't look like a blank canvas waiting to be painted with red. The sun was shining down on them, but it still wasn't enough to make the two ex-trainers take off their jackets. Sinnoh didn't get extremely warm like other regions. It would be a waste to get rid of their jackets—they would return to Snowpoint eventually, and their clothes weren't ripped to the point of being useless.

"Ah! I think I see something in the distance!" Axel pointed up ahead. There was an area with three high walls and many broken down buildings. The people in Eterna were in the middle of trying to raise one last wall before their camp could be fully protected. That was when the fighting started. It halted all progress on their wall, and more people fell to pokémon. How long had the fighting been going on?

What would the camp be like? Neither Jordan nor Axel knew. There could be nonstop fighting, or there could be a pause to continue construction on their last wall. The walls were more like wooden gates, taken from the trees in the area. Jordan frowned. "How's that supposed to stand up against fire-type pokémon?"

"You're forgetting that Snowpoint uses wood as our gate." Axel said as he looked at Jordan.

"Yeah, but fire-type pokémon don't show up near Snowpoint."

"Touché. So," Axel crossed his arms, "do we march up to their gate, or do we try to circle around to find Sasha and Kane?"

Jordan crossed her arms. She opened her mouth to say something, but instead pushed Axel down to a bush and crouched down.

"Hey! What was that for!"

"Nothing. It'd be better not to stand out in the open; they might see us."

"But was that really a reason to push me down like that? I thought we were in danger!"

"Sh!"

"Don't shush me!"

"Their wall isn't finished. They might have people scouting the area to make sure there aren't any pokémon close by."

"And if they find us, it'll mean trouble."

Jordan nodded and continued to look around. There didn't seem to be any people patrolling the area at the moment, but they couldn't be too careful. There weren't any pokémon sneaking up on them, so why did Jordan feel like she was being watched? She didn't see anything out of the ordinary, or was that the point?

Jordan and Axel felt the chill of a blade press up against their necks. Jordan closed her eyes and silently cursed. She knew someone was out there watching them. Why didn't she listen to her instincts sooner? She should have acted differently! They both still had their weapons on them, so they could still fight back once they got out of that situation.

"Stand up. _Slowly_."

Jordan and Axel glanced at each other. Axel noticed the look in Jordan's eyes, but he couldn't shake his head to tell her not to go through with it. He didn't want to die because of something like this. Axel closed his eyes and took a deep breath, waiting for whatever crazy stunt Jordan was about to pull.

Jordan looked around for some kind of escape. She couldn't see the people holding her and Axel captive, and she didn't know if there were more of them out there. If there were just two, Jordan was sure that she and Axel would be able to get away. Jordan glanced at Axel, seeing him look at her with a worried expression. He probably thought she was going to do something stupid. Her plan wasn't the most secure—hell, it couldn't even be called a plan—but she didn't like their current course. She had to do something before it was too late.

"I said stand up!"

The best option was to cooperate. Jordan needed for their captors to relax, and get the knives away from Jordan and Axel's precious jugulars. Jordan was never good at talking to people, but she would have to try her best to diffuse them. Jordan gulped. "Yeah, okay, we're getting up."

Jordan and Axel slowly stood up. The people behind them held the knives against Jordan and Axel's necks, and there were no signs of them loosening their grips. Jordan glanced around. They still had all of their stuff, but there was no way to get at any of it. The slightest move could be deadly.

"Listen," said Axel, "we're not gonna do anything to you guys, so why don't you put those nice knives down?"

"Why are you two by Eterna? Which group are you with?"

"Which group? Listen man, we're just passing through." Axel and Jordan locked eyes. Axel, as expected, was pretty good at this. He could do most of the talking.

"Just passing through?" The man behind Jordan started talking. "Then explain why you were watching our camp?"

"We wanted to make sure something like this wouldn't happen." Axel paused for a few moments. "Listen to me. We won't do anything. Hell, we'll stay away from you guys. Just put the knives down."

"You guys have weapons, how do we know you won't turn on us?"

"And bring attention to ourselves? Why would we be stupid enough to do that?"

The two people holding Jordan and Axel at knifepoint looked at each other. This black haired boy had a point. If they brought attention to themselves, then both pokémon and humans would be after them. The two scouts looked at each other. These people didn't even seem to know about the fighting that was going on, so there was reason to believe that they were indeed just passing through.

"FIne," said the one behind Axel, "we'll let one of you go. If you make it far without anything happening, then we'll let the other one go."

Jordan and Axel were silent. They didn't have a guarantee that these people would stick to their word. Axel leaned away from the blade. "How far are we talking? And how do you even know that you'll let the second of us go?"

"Twenty feet, and you're just going to have to take our word for it."

Jordan didn't like where this was going. Either way it felt like they were in a losing situation. She could feel the knife leave her neck a few centimeters. It looked like they were getting ready to let one of them go. The two people from Eterna looked at each other, then let Axel go. Axel looked surprised for a moment, then made sure he had all of his things. Interesting. They hand't taken anything from them. These people were just worried about strangers coming into their camp. They also could have been confident about the fact that no sane person would try to attack someone holding a knife to their neck.

Axel looked at the two people from Eterna. There were two men, one with blond hair and one with orange. The blond was still behind Jordan, and the ginger was looking at Axel with a stoic expression. His eyebrows furrowed, and he gestured with his knife.

"Go. We'll release your little girlfriend when you're far enough away."

Jordan's eyebrow twitched.

"It's not like that," said Axel. He had his hands up, and was looking at Jordan nervously. "You see, we're just—"

"I said get going!"

Axel nodded and turned around. He started to walk in the other direction while the ginger lifted his knife. It looked like he was going to throw it at Axel. The blond behind Jordan yawned; his guard was down. This was her chance. Jordan bit the blond's hand, forcing him to drop his knife.

"Son of a bitch!"

Jordan pushed the blond man away from her and quickly grabbed her stuff. She pulled her dagger out and stabbed the blond in the thigh. He cried out in pain and let a flurry of curses fly. Jordan moved on to the ginger. She slashed at his arm, then started running. She ran towards Axel and grabbed his wrist, pulling him with her to the dense trees in-between the routes.

"Jordan, what the hell!"

"One of them was going to throw his knife at you!"

"What?"

"They weren't planning on letting us go! They still thought we were part of one of the other groups! Keep running!"

Jordan and Axel boded through the area between the routes as fast as they could. They could hear voices behind them when they started running. Both Jordan and Axel were running out of breath, but they couldn't stop. They had to cut across and meet up with Sasha and Kane. These people were from Eterna, so, in theory, once they saw Kane, everything would be fine. They just had to get away for now. And survive any pokémon they came across. That was important.

The two ex-trainers started to slow down. Axel started breathing even more heavily. "I don't…think I can…keep running like this."

"Just a little further," panted Jordan. "Then we can take a break. It's not a good idea to stay out here for too long."

Axel grabbed Jordan's arm. "Jordan! They're not following us anymore!"

Jordan looked behind her. Axel was right; they couldn't hear the footsteps of their pursuers anymore. Jordan stopped running and put her hands on her knees, attempting to catch her breath. Her lungs were burning, and her legs felt like jelly. She had never run that fast in her life. Sure, she had to run to get away from pokémon, but usually a few arrows would knock them down. Running from the Eternians was something different entirely. Running was their only option. It wouldn't be a good idea to kill them, or even injure them. No, it would be a bad idea to injure them further.

Jordan looked around. They both had all of their things—the people that had ambushed them hadn't gotten the chance to take away their belongings, which was an oversight on their part. They really should have taken away all of their weapons while they were holding the two at knifepoint. Jordan and Axel had been right where to Eterna scouts wanted them.

At least they got away.

Jordan took a deep breath, then stood up straight. She looked through her backpack, and saw that everything was still there. She held her bow in her hand, and held an arrow in the other. There was no telling what they would find off-route, so they had to be ready to fight back. They might find an extremely overpowered pokémon, or an entire hoard of them. No trainer ever dared to venture off of a route—it was dangerous enough just to be on them normally. Time would tell if Jordan and Axel got away with their lives or not.

Jordan heard Axel pull out his sword. He looked at her and shrugged. "Can't be too careful out here; we're in unknown territory."

Jordan nodded and looked around. It would be better for them to stay quiet a little longer. It was safer that way.

Or so she thought. A roar broke through the silence, causing Jordan and Axel to look around. A tyranitar was staring at them, its gaze never straying from the two humans.

"Hey Jordan?" Axel was frozen in place. Of course they had to walk into the path of a strong pokémon like a tyranitar.

"Yeah?"

"You see the tyranitar too, right?"

"Mmhm."

"So…what do we do?"

"You ask that like we have a choice."

"Gotcha. We run."

Jordan nodded. The tyranitar roared at them again. Jordan nocked an arrow in her bow—it wouldn't hurt to be prepared just in case the pokémon started to attack. Hopefully it wouldn't take that as a challenge. Tyranitar were always ready to fight since they weren't defeated easily. The trainers that had tyranitars on their teams only had them because they had trained larvitars. Only an idiot would try, and fail, to catch a tyranitar.

Jordan and Axel started sprinting. They ran around the tyranitar, doing their best to avoid hitting or provoking it. Then again, trying to run away probably wasn't the best way to avoid provoking it. The tyranitar followed them and whipped up a sandstorm. The sand was so thick that Jordan wouldn't be able to shoot her bow; she could barely see two feet in front of her.

The ground below Jordan started to lift up. She jumped out of the way as a stone pierced through the ground.

"You've _got_ to be shitting me!" Jordan shouted. "Fucking _Stone Edge_?"

One wrong step could get them killed, and it didn't help that sand was getting in their eyes. Axel jumped forward as the pokémon attempted to use Fire Fang. At least that gave them an idea as to where the tyranitar was. Jordan smirked.

_I may not be able to see you, but I know your general area. Even if it is for a moment._

Jordan pulled the bowstring back, and aimed her arrow in the general direction fo the flames. There was a roar; Jordan hit her mark. Somehow.

"Impressive," panted Axel. "I didn't think you would be able to hit something in the middle of a sandstorm."

"Neither did I. Flames helped. Come on!"

Jordan and Axel continued to run. The earth started to shake—the damn pokémon was using Earthquake. It would be impossible for them to keep their footing for much longer. The ground beneath them cracked and broke apart. They had to be careful or else they would get stuck in the earth. Hopefully, the sandstorm wouldn't stay up for that much longer. Being stuck in that was like being in a wind tunnel with small pieces of glass repeatedly hitting them. The sand was in their eyes, and it kept bouncing off of Jordan's glasses. Luckily for her, glasses for trainers were made with scratch-resistant glass—they wouldn't be damaged so quickly in a sandstorm. There weren't many places that could produce sandstorms in Sinnoh, but it was common for all trainers.

"Hey! Get close to it!"

"What the hell are you talking about!"

"If you get close to it, and it tries to use Fire Fang, then I'll know where it is!"

" _Fuck_ no! We're gonna find another way."

Jordan frowned. She could understand why Axel didn't want to be bait, but this was the only way they would know where the pokémon was. Tyranitar had some long range moves that would be dangerous if they didn't take it down fast. Dark Pulse, Rock Slide, and Hyper Beam would be death-inducing. But if it hadn't used Hyper Beam yet, maybe it didn't know it? There was no way the pokémon could be that strong.

The tyranitar let out an ear piercing roar. Jordan felt the pain in her ears, and one of them popped. The roar didn't allow for any other sound to come through, robbing them of another of their senses. Everything sounded like it was muted by cotton balls. Like they were stuck underwater trying to hear anything around them.

The end of the trees was rapidly approaching. More light could be seen through the branches, and the sandstorm was starting to subside. The pieces of sand spun around with less ferocity as the storm became weaker. It was more of a sand-breeze, like a windy dat at the beach.

Jordan looked behind her and could see more of an outline of the pokémon that was chasing them. It would be much easier to hit now. Jordan nocked an arrow in her bow, and turned around in a jump. She aimed at the pokémon, and let the arrow sail through the air. The tyranitar roared in pain—Jordan hit her mark. She landed on the ground with a thud, sliding a few feet. She got up as the pokémon's eyes glinted dangerously—they glowed as the pokémon started to use Thrash.

Trees fell around them as the tyranitar attacked anything that even slightly moved. Craters were formed, and the earth moved. Jordan and Axel had to dodge and slide out of the way to avoid getting pummeled to death. Luckily for them, the attack drove off any other pokémon near them, so they only had to worry about the tyranitar. Simple. Just a pseudo legendary pokémon trying to kill them. No big deal.

Jordan broke through to the next route. She tripped and rolled on the ground a little bit. Axel stopped to pull her up, and the two of them looked back at the tyranitar once they heard a roar. The rock-type pokémon had broken through the trees as well. It looked around tentatively at first, then stepped onto the route. It was done using Thrash, and it looked like it was getting ready to use another move. Jordan had to do something to it and quick.

She threaded her bow, then shot at the tyranitar. She took her time aiming; she wanted this to truly injure it so it would run away. The arrow flew through the air, hitting the tyranitar in the eye. It roared in pain, and its jaw immediately erupted in flames. It was like it had an inner volcano that would never be quelled. Jordan almost tripped over herself in her rush to get out of the way. She pulled Axel with her.

"That didn't work."

"Yeah no shit! You made it angrier!"

"My bad."

The two of them got out of the way of yet another Fire Fang. The tyranitar chomped at air, then locked eyes with Jordan. Jordan grabbed Axel and pulled him close so she could look him in the eyes. "You have to attack it."

"What do you mean?"

"Just wait for my signal!" Jordan pushed Axel away and stood to face the tyranitar. "Hey ugly!"

The pokémon roared and stomped towards her. Jordan smirked. She was crazy. Taunting a tyranitar? She didn't have a death wish, but it sure as hell looked like it. The pokémon started breathing some sort of cold air; it was getting ready to use Ice Fang. It chomped down, and Jordan avoided getting her leg bitten off. She grabbed one of its horns, and pulled herself up on top of the pokémon. Jordan held on while the tyranitar started to use Thrash again—it wanted her off of its head. Jordan closed her eyes while the pokémon jumped around and attacked anything and everything. Her knuckles were snow white. She refused to be thrown off.

Axel watched Jordan. How would treating the tyranitar like some kind of Ride Pokémon help? Was that her signal? He knew that Jordan was going to try and be the bait for the pokémon, but when should he attack it? He needed to do something that wouldn't put Jordan in danger; something that was much more difficult now that she was on top of the thing. Axel sighed and tightened the grip on his sword. He had a good opportunity to attack, but he couldn't go in while the pokémon was using Thrash.

"Move!"

Axel was shoved out of the way. Two people ran forward, one with dual swords, and the other with seemingly nothing. Knives were thrown at the raging pokémon, causing it to roar and thrash about even more. Jordan lost her grip and was thrown off of it. She crashed into a tree and went limp. The knife thrower looked at Axel.

"I thought you guys were dead."

"Sasha."

"Yeah it's me." Sasha looked at the pseudo legendary. "Man, you guys really do have the worst luck."

"Hey guys?" yelled Kane. He was attacking the tyranitar with his two swords, and was surprisingly holding his own against it. "Little help here!"

"Right!" Sasha looked at Axel. "Let's go drive that thing off, shall we?"

Axel nodded and stood up. He grabbed his sword off the ground and charged at the pokémon. Axel and Kane slashed while Sasha stayed back and threw knives. Sasha slowly made her way towards Jordan.

The tyranitar roared and looked around. It was getting hungry, and these humans were starting to become a nuisance. It had wanted to use them as a meal, but it wasn't worth the energy it was using up. The pokémon turned and started to walk off. The humans weren't doing any damage to its hard hide, but it didn't want to deal with this anymore. The tyranitar let loose a Dark Pulse, successfully knocking all of the humans back, then turned around and stalked back through the trees to where it came from.

Axel lay down on the ground from exhaustion. His mind was tired, and so was his body. That Dark Pulse took over his mind and filled it with negative thoughts. Axel finally cleared his head, and reflected on the events that had taken place. He couldn't believe what had happened. Sasha and Kane swept in and made the tyranitar leave. Why couldn't he and Jordan have done that?

Axel turned. Jordan. She was still leaning against the tree with her head hung. Axel shakily stood up and made his way to the archer. He nudged her shoulder, and she groaned. Jordan put a hand to her head.

"You're alive."

"So are you."

"But I didn't jump on top of a tyranitar."

"Yean," Jordan winced, "that might have been a bad idea. Feels like I got run over by an Arceus-damned train."

"Be glad you're still breathing."

Jordan looked up at Sasha. "Woah. When did you get here?"

Kane spun one of his swords as he walked over. "Right after you made your death wish. You got some balls. I mean, jumping on top of a tyranitar? You're insane."

Jordan winced as she stood up. "Yeah, well, it's gone now."

Sasha looked back to the thicket of trees. "So how did you two manage to get a tyranitar of all things to chase you?"

"We ended up cutting through the route after ending up on the wrong side of Mt. Coronet," said Axel.

Sasha and Kane looked at them with wide eyes. Only a trainer who was suicidal would do that when things were normal. There was no chance of survival the way things were now. Pokémon were stronger, and there was no way to control them.

"Are you guys crazy?" Sasha put away a knife. "What were you thinking?"

"We were thinking," Jordan used on fo her arrows to point at Sasha, "that it was our only chance after getting caught by some people from Eterna."

"You _what_?" Sasha and Kane gaped at Jordan. They had gotten caught by people from Eterna? How did they manage to do that?

"We got caught by some people in—"

"I heard what you said," interrupted Kane. Jordan raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything. Kane looked between the two of them. "Did you hurt them?"

Axel and Jordan exchanged a look. Kane stepped forward and grabbed Jordan by her jacket collar. He annunciated each word very clearly. "Did you hurt them?"

Jordan continued to look at Kane with a blank, albeit exhausted, expression. "Yep."

Axel pushed Kane off of Jordan. "There was no option. They were going to attack us."

Kane put his head in his hands. "You have _got_ to be kidding me. Do you know how much harder it's going to be now?"

Jordan waved in a dismissive manner. "They probably think we're dead. I wouldn't worry too much about it." She smirked. "Can't wait to see their expressions when they see two ghosts."

Sasha sighed. "Let's hope that doesn't pose a problem."

"It's not my fault," Jordan halfheartedly crossed her arms. "It's theirs for not keeping their promise. They said they would let one of us go, then the other one."

"Jordan's right on this one," said Axel, "they were just going to kill us anyway."

"It's not like I did a lot to them," grumbled Jordan. She glared at Axel. Right on this one? What was that supposed to mean?

Sasha sighed again. "Fine. We'll deal with it later. Let's take a quick break, then get to Eterna."

Kane huffed and looked to his left. "Yeah, we're really close. We'll catch our breath, then get going."

Jordan raised an eyebrow. "Who made you the leader of our little squad?"

"I'm the one that's gonna get you in," said Kane. "I'll take the lead form here on out."

Jordan let out a silent sigh, then rested her head against the tree. "Hm, that's probably a good idea. At least, for now."

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to Poképocalypse! I hope you've enjoyed the chapter and decide to stick around for the rest of the ride! Constructive criticism is welcome — just don't tell me you dislike my story without providing me a valid reason. Thank you for reading!


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